Malaysian GP: Williams continue to struggle in FP2

After the first Friday practice for the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix the Williams F1 team would make a variety of changes to both Pastor Maldonado's and Valtteri Bottas's cars as they looked to improved the setup. For both drivers this would include having to take the floors both cars. With the start of the second session
light rain would start to fall as the cars took to the track looking to get dry laps in. Vergne would go fastest ahead of Ricciardo and Valtteri. But both Alonso and Perez would move ahead, Alonso setting a 1m:37.383. Sparks would come from the underneath of Valtteri's car as he went through Turn twelve. Raikkonen would go fastest with a 1m:37.302 with Alonso second and Vettel third. Valtteri was down in fifteenth and Pastor thirteenth, 1m:39.579.

Raikkonen had improved with a 1m:37.042 as clouds gathered over the track. Di Resta was fourth and Webber now fifth. Both Pastor and Valtteri would pit as other drivers started to switch from the hard to the medium tyre. Pastor would be the first for Williams to try the option tyre making sure that he got a run with them prior to any rain. Massa on the softer tyre would set a 1m:36.661 to be fastest. Valtteri would follow Pastor out also using the medium tyre. The clouds continued to move closer to the circuit with rain expected shortly. Alonso was now second with a 1m:37.016 also on the medium tyre. Vettel would go fastest with a 1m:36.588 also on the option tyre, while Webber was fourth.

Both Williams drivers would pit after their first run on the medium tyre. Pastor would get a front wing change and some other changes prior to returning to the track this time on the hard tyre. Valtteri would have another run on the option tyre. Raikkonen was now fastest with a 1m:36.569, as the rain continued to close in onto the circuit. Pastor would report rain at the back of the circuit. With forty five minutes of the session completed the rain would start to fall seeing both Williams drivers return to their pits. But with ten minutes remaining both drivers would return this time running on intermediates but Pastor would soon say that it was dry enough for slicks again. They would pit and come back out for their final run of the day no doubt happy to conserve their wet weather tyres for the rest of the weekend.

Pastor would get down into the 1m:42s on medium tyres but Pastor would get down to a 1m:41.984 but this was compared to a 1m:40.050 from Raikkonen. With the end of the session the overall times set early on in the dry had Pastor finishing sixteenth with a 1m:38.801 and Valtteri a 1m:39.660 to be nineteenth. At the front it was Raikkonen quickest, 1m:36.569, from Vettel, Massa, Alonso, Webber, Grosjean, Rosberg, Di Resta, Hamilton, and Sutil tenth. Despite the changes made by the Williams team in the break between sessions the FW35 was still struggling to show any real pace. It would seem to again be another weekend of disappointment for the Williams team still struggling to find answers as to why the FW35 is off the pace.

Pos Driver         	  Team		        Time     Laps
 1. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m36.569  28
 2. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m36.588s 27
 3. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m36.661s 33
 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m36.985s 23
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m37.026s 29
 6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault         1m37.206s 26
 7. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m37.448s 32
 8. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m37.571s 30
 9. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m37.574s 32
10. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m37.788s 10
11. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m37.838s 21
12. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m37.865s 29
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.068s 31
14. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.645s 23
15. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.738s 31
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m38.801s 27
17. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.904s 31
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m39.508s 30
19. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m39.660s 28
20. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m40.757s 29
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m40.768s 32
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m41.438s 23