Williams Martini Barcelona Test 20:02:2015 Day Two

Driver: Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW37-02 / PU106B Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Objectives: Systems, set-up and tyre work
Weather: Warm and Dry Air & track temps: 4 - 15ºC / 9 - 27ºC

Day two of the Williams Martini teams Barcelona test and it would be Felipe Massa replacing Susie Wolff. With the start of the day Felipe would be one of the first out but he would be soon back in the pits having completed just two laps in the first half an hour. Upon his return Felipe's first flying lap would see him set a 1m:28.733 followed by a 1m:27.772 to be quickest running on the medium tyre. He would pit and after a short stop would return setting times within a tenth of his previous best. Quickest at this time was Perez but Rosberg would move ahead with a 1m:27.242. On this run Felipe would be on the hard tyre prior to pitting.

With two hours of the day completed Felipe had completed nineteen laps and had dropped to fifth. Quickest at this time was Perez with a 1m:26.447. Felipe would return to the track briefly and on his next run he would improve with a 1m:27.204 running on the hard tyre. This would be a short run for the Williams driver with his lap times all in the 1m:27s. Perez had lowered the quickest time with a 1m:24.927 followed by Rosberg and Ricciardo. Perez's time was set on the soft tyre with the majority of the drivers present focusing on the medium tyre. With three hours of the day completed Felipe was currently sixth having completed thirty two laps.

Felipe would achieve an improvement in his lap time setting a 1m:26.927 but remained sixth prior to pitting. Ricciardo had been able to set a new fastest time with a 1m:24.574, also on the soft tyre. Raikkonen was second with a time of 1m:24.584 while Felipe had now completed forty seven laps prior to pitting again for the lunch break. With the restart of the test it would not be until well into the afternoon session before Felipe would prepare to come back out. But his return was stopped by a red flag courtesy of Sainz leaving the track.

With the track returning to green Felipe was straight back out running on the hard tyre. Felipe would pit after half a dozen laps. With just under a n hour remaining Felipe was back out again on the hard tyre and he would set times in the mid 1m:28s. He had completed sixty two laps. As the day drew to a close Felipe would take to the track on soft tyres and it would produce his best yet speed trap figures and he would move up to fourth. He would set a 1m:24.672 to be less than a tenth off the quickest time set by Ricciardo. With the end of the day Felipe would complete eighty eight laps.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: It has been another productive day. Barcelona is a good representative circuit so the data we get here is very useful. We had a lot of work to do with Felipe which we covered. Our focus is moving from reliability and long runs to more performance based tests and I am pleased with how the car has run so far in Barcelona.

Felipe Massa: The car has a lot of potential and today we realised some of that but we still have a lot of work to do. We completed the programme for the day without any unexpected issues. The work on tyres this afternoon gave us a lot of good data which we now have to look at. Getting more laps in the FW37 is important for the continued development of the car.

WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING will be back on track tomorrow with Felipe driving in the morning and Valtteri in the afternoon.

Driver 		Team 		 Best Time 	Best / 
		 				Total Laps
1. D. Ricciardo Red Bull     	 1:24.574 	49 / 143
2. K. Raikkonen Ferrari  	 1:24.584 	37 / 90
3. F. Massa 	WILLIAMS MARTINI 1:24.672 	78 / 88
4. S. Perez 	Force India	 1:24.702 	39 / 121
5. L. Hamilton  Mercedes	 1:24.923 	80 / 89
6. N. Rosberg	Mercedes	 1:25.556 	36 / 66
7. F. Alonso	McLaren		 1:25.961 	34 / 59
8. J. Palmer	Lotus		 1:26.280 	60 / 77
9. M. Ericsson	Sauber		 1:27.338 	46 / 113
10. C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	 1:28.945 	18 / 100