Spanish GP: Difficult opening Friday session for Williams

The opening ninety minute Friday practice at the Circuit de Catalunya would get underway with the AT&T Williams team running several new parts on the FW32. Bridgestone had brought the soft and hard compounds for this weekends race. It would be interesting to see how much running the teams have given the pre-season testing at this circuit. For Force India Sutil will sit out this session while over at HRT Christian Klien will take over from Chandhok. With the start of the session there would be the normal rush of drivers coming out for their installation laps, including Nico Hulkenberg. Nico would pit while team-mate Rubens Barrichello remained in his pit. Rubens would finally come out and also pit after one lap.

With ten minutes run only Rosberg was out on the track. Nico would also return to the track only to pit after one lap, only to quickly come back out. The team had moved the front wings off the barge boards as was required. Di Grassi and Glock were out on the track. Rubens was out on the circuit while Glock had set the first time with a 1m:34.777. Massa had also left the pit lane while Rubens would pit. Glock would also pit while De la Rosa would also come out, joined by Klein. Massa would go fastest with a 1m:24.129. His next lap was a 1m:23.536. De la Rosa would have a small spin while Klein was third with a 1m:38.583. Massa would take a few tenths off his time with a 1m:23.386. Klien was now second with a time of 1m:33.916.

Schumacher and Senna were out on the track with Schumacher pitting. Klein would improve with a 1m:31.911 while both Lotus cars had left the pits. Senna was third with a 1m:32.603. Klein was able to improve with a 1m:30.383 while Massa had pitted. Alguersuari was now second with a 1m:28.366 and Kovalainen was third, followed by Senna, Klein, and Glock. Kobayashi and Petrov were out on the track while Trulli moved up to second, 1m:28.095. But Kobayashi and Alguersuari would move up to second and third. Kobayashi's time of 1m:25.929 was some 2.5 seconds off Massa's time. Alguersuari was now second, 1m:25.353. Both Kobayashi and Alguersuari would improve to now be second and third. Trulli was fourth from Klein and Senna. Petrov was eighth with as 1m:31.160.

Kobayashi was now fastest with a 1m:23.190 while Petrov was up to fourth, 1m:24.705. Petrov would improve to be third while Webber was fourth. Webber would improve to be fastest with a 1m:22.985 but was passed by Kobayashi with a 1m:22.292. Vettel was now fourth, 1m:23.234, while both Williams drivers were out on the track. Kobayashi had pitted while Vettel would go fastest with a 1m:22.422. Nico's first time was a 1m:25.808
to be ninth. Rubens had yet to set a time but his first lap would be a 1m:27.068 to be eleventh. Webber was again fastest with a 1m:22.386 making it a Red Bull one-two. With forty six minutes remaining only fifteen drivers had set a time while Di Resta was up to fifth. Vettel would move ahead of Webber with a 1m:22.026 but Webber would also improve to again be fastest, 1m:22.011.

Schumacher was now fifth, 1m:22.712, followed by Di Resta, Kubica, Massa, Alguersuari, Rubens, and Nico in eleventh. Button was now out on the track while Webber had pitted. Kubica was now sixth while Button's first time was a 1m:23.105 to be in sixth. Vettel had also pitted while Nico would improve to move ahead of Rubens with a 1m:23.471. Rubens had set a time of 1m:24.170 but he would also improve with a 1m:23.673. Nico and Rubens were eleventh and twelfth. Kubica was now third, 1m:22.202, while Rosberg was up to fourth, 1m:22.419. Team-mate Schumacher was now fastest with a 1m:21.716 while Hamilton was up to fifth, 1m:22.190. Button was second, 1m:21.788. Alonso would set a 1m:23.003 to be tenth while Nico and Rubens would both pit currently in fourteenth and fifteenth. Button was now fastest with a time of 1m:21.672.

Team-mate Hamilton was now quickest with a 1m:21.330 while Rosberg would have a moment at Turn two taking to the gravel. He was able to make his way back onto the track while at the front Hamilton would improve with a 1m:21.134. Button and Schumacher had pitted while Nico had returned to the track. Vettel would return to the track while Hamilton had pitted. Nico and Rubens were now fifteenth and sixteenth. De la Rosa had yet to set a time due to a gearbox problem. Alonso was up to seventh, 1m:22.258. With thirty minutes remaining Hamilton was fastest from Button, Schumacher, Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Alonso, Rosberg, Kobayashi, and Petrov in tenth. Rubens would come out to join Nico. Webber was again on the track while Vettel would miss his braking point approaching Turn 10. He would run wide on to the asphalt run-off area but would rejoin without problem.

Petrov was now eighth and Rosberg ninth. Nico would pit while Rubens would put in an improved lap in the first two sectors but would lose time in the final sector to remain seventeenth. Rosberg was now sixth while Rubens time was now a 1m:23.312. Rubens would complain to his engineer about some understeer. Rubens would pit with just under twenty minutes remaining. Button would return to the track but would return while Hamilton was out on the track leaving just a handful of drivers running. Kobayashi was up to tenth while Rubens was ahead of Nico were they were in sixteenth and seventeenth. Button had returned to his pit after having run over a piece of car coming out of the pit lane. Webber and Alonso had returned to the track while at Williams the team was taking Rubens car to pieces with a oil pressure problem. Nico had now returned to the track with the German driver not running with the updates that are on Rubens car.

De la Rosa would be out for the session with his gearbox problem while Buemi was now eleventh. Nico would stop out on the track after a big plume of smoke came from his engine. Nico would stop at Turn six and was pushed off the track ending his session. Not a good start to the weekend for the Williams team with six minutes remaining in the session. The track was now quite busy while Button remained in his pit while the McLaren team repaired the rear of his car. As the final minutes counted down Button was able to return to the track seeing only Petrov and De la Rosa remaining in their pits. Petrov would also come out making it even busier. Alonso would pit from eighth but was quickly back out while Schumacher would pit with two minutes remaining.

Hamilton was still fastest from Button, Schumacher, Webber, Vettel, Rosberg, Kubica, Alonso, Petrov, and Kobayashi in tenth. The session would end with Rubens and Nico still sixteenth and seventeenth. Nico was two tenths behind Rubens which is what the new updates were worth. It will be a busy time for the Williams team having to look at a possible engine change for Nico's car once it is returned to the pits.

Pos  Driver         Team		   Time      Laps
 1.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.134  21
 2.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.672  14
 3.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:21.716  12
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:22.011  27
 5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:22.026  22
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:22.070  19
 7.  Kubica         Renault                1:22.202  22
 8.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:22.258  19
 9.  Petrov         Renault                1:22.397  23
10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:22.492  26
11.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:22.588  24
12.  Massa          Ferrari                1:22.975  22
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:23.030  21
14.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:23.110  31
15.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:23.284  19
16.  Barrichello    AT&T Williams-Cosworth 1:23.312  22
17.  Hulkenberg     AT&T Williams-Cosworth 1:23.471  20
18.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:25.329  17
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:26.244  20
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:26.340  23
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:26.694  24
22.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth           1:27.250  26
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:27.752  27
24.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         No time   3