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After their
podium finish in Belgium the Williams Martini team would move to the famous
Monza circuit for the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. The team has brought a low
downforce configuration for this event as the opening Friday practice
session got underway with Ericsson first out. Kobayashi was back with
Caterham but would see Merhi take his spot for this session. while in Lotus
and Force India Pic and Juncadella would be driving in this session. Pirelli
had brought their medium and hard tyre for this event. First out for Williams was Felipe Massa who
would complete one lap prior to pitting. The teams would have an extra set
of hard tyres for the first thirty minutes of this session. Valtteri Bottas
would be one of the last drivers to take to the track returning to the pit
after his installation lap. Van der Gar was in the Sauber for this session
replacing Sutil.
Drivers would start to return to the track very quickly including Felipe for
Williams. Chilton would set a 1m:33.435 for the first time. Other drivers
would come also set times Merhi second with a 1m:36.491. The times would
start to come down with Vergne now fastest with a 1m:30.511 followed by
Chilton and Juncadella. But Magnussen would go quickest with a 1m:28.256.
Button was now third behind Vergne, 1m:31.244, with Felipe fifth with a
1m:32.244. All the field was out including Valtteri. Button was now second with a 1m:29.216 with Valtteri
moving up to third with a time of 1m:29.936. Felipe would improve with a
1m:28.548 to be second as Rosberg moved into third, 1m:28.739. Valtteri was
now sixth but would improve to be fourth with a 1m:28.782. Magnussen would
also find pace with a 1m:27.228 to be 1.3 seconds ahead of Felipe.
Alonso would go second with a 1m:28.397 but both Button and Valtteri would
move into second and third. Valtteri's time was a 1m:28.334 as Rosberg and
Hamilton moved into second and fourth. Button was now third with Gutierrez
fifth. Felipe and Valtteri were now sixth and seventh. Alonso had dropped to
eighth with Raikkonen now ninth and Hulkenberg tenth. Button was on a quick
lap setting a 1m:27.158 to be quickest from Magnussen. But Rosberg would go
fastest with a 1m:27.071 but Hamilton would go ahead with a 1m:27.064. Alonso and Raikkonen would also
improve with the pair now fifth and sixth. Felipe and Valtteri were now
ninth and tenth as Valtteri pitted. With the first thirty minutes drawing to
a close the drivers would start to pit having to give back their hard set of
tyres. Felipe had been making changes to reduce rear brake locking.
The track was now empty with Perez now taking over from Juncadella for the
rest of the session. Fifty minutes of the session remaining and the track
was still quite but a few minutes later drivers would start to return to the
track, including Merhi, Chilton and Raikkonen. Kvyat was next out followed
by Vergne. Bianchi was also out onto the track along with Maldonado and
Vettel. Merhi would have a minor off at Ascari but would continue. Raikkonen
was now fifth with a 1m:27.228 as Magnussen took to the track. Ricciardo
would also come out for his next run with thirty eight minutes remaining. Rosberg was next out joined by Alonso with Raikkonen
pitting. Magnussen had also pitted with the team having to fix an issue with
his headrest coming lose. Button was back out as Kvyat moved up to seventh,
1m:27.741, with Vettel now eighth.
Felipe and Valtteri were now tenth and eleventh with Hamilton still fastest
from Rosberg, Button, Magnussen, Raikkonen, and Alonso. Alonso would move
into fifth with a time of 1m:27.539 with both Williams cars still in their
garages. Vettel would also improve to be fifth, 1m:27.271, while Button was
on a quick lap going fastest in sectors one and two. He would finish with a
1m:26.810 to be quickest from Hamilton by 0.254.Felipe would be first back
out for Williams with thirty minutes remaining. Hamilton would take to the
track as Ricciardo was told to pit as there was a loss of power and that there was an issue possibly with his ERS. Valtteri
was now also back out on the track with the order now Button from Hamilton,
Rosberg, Alonso, Magnussen, Vettel, Raikkonen, Kvyat, Gutierrez and Felipe.
Hamilton had improved with a 1m:26.967 to be just 0.157 behind Button.
Rosberg had also found time with a 1m:26.995 while for Williams Valtteri had
set a 1m:28.148 to move ahead of Felipe to be tenth. The Williams team
continued their aero evaluations in the session. Button and Rosberg had both
pitted as Perez took to the track. Hamilton was able to find time to move
ahead of Button with a 1m:26.547 with both Williams cars now 1.6 seconds off
the quickest pace. Valtteri was now on a quicker lap as Felipe pitted. Valtteri would fail to complete his lap
also coming back into his pit with twenty minutes remaining. Hamilton would
go even quicker with a time of 1m:26.187 to now be six tenths ahead of
Button. Hulkenberg was now in ninth but Perez would take this spot seeing
the Force India cars ninth and tenth. Valtteri and Felipe were twelfth and
thirteenth.
Fifteen minutes of the session remained as Button and Rosberg came back out.
Both Button and Rosberg were out on used tyres as Hamilton also came back
out with ten minutes remaining. Both Williams cars would also come back out
with the track now very busy. With the session drawing to a close it was not
expected that the times would change much. Valtteri would suffer a big
lock-up going into the Parabolica. Alonso would pit with three minutes
remaining. Felipe would pit briefly with Valtteri coming in shortly after. He would also come back out as the
session came to an end. He would return to his pit with Valtteri and Felipe
still twelfth and thirteenth. The top ten was Hamilton from Button, Rosberg,
Alonso, Magnussen, Vettel, Raikkonen, Perez, Kvyat, and Hulkenberg. The
Williams team would complete their normal pit stop practice at the end of
the session. Despite being one of the quickest in the speed traps the
Williams cars seemed to struggle in certain parts of the track. |
