Chinese GP: Williams Martini recovers in FP2


By Andrew Hooper
April 15 2016

After a difficult opening Friday practice session for the 2016 Chinese GP the Williams Martini team would recover with both team drivers completing a trouble free second session. Both drivers were somewhat off the pace with Valtteri Bottas finishing 10th and Felipe Massa 14th. The team would come away having learnt a lot about the FW38 on the various tyre options. Now the team will have to focus on translating this data to further performance come Saturday.

 
  Williams Martini Chinese GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Bottas
 

Team Summary:
For Williams the second Friday practice session for the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix was one where they would have to catch up on their schedule having lost virtually all of the first session as they tried to sort out the failures of Felipe Massa's car. With the start of the session the Williams team was still working on Felipe's car. The team would announce that had made modifications to their cars and would assess them on their installation laps. The first quick time would come from Button with a 1m:38.868 on the soft tyre. Rosberg would set a 1m:37.761 to be quickest.

Both Williams drivers would complete a single installation lap in order to check out their modifications. Ricciardo was second followed by Hamilton and Button. Hamilton was on the medium tyre. Most drivers were straight into longer runs in the early part of the session. Both Williams drivers would complete their first timed laps with Felipe eleventh and Valtteri fourteenth. All of the top ten drivers were back in their pits. Rosberg and Hamilton were out on the supersoft tyre with Rosberg setting a 1m:37.133 to improve his gap to second. Hamilton was now second with a 1m:37.329. More drivers were out on the supersoft tyre and after their runs Rosberg was quickest from Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Alonso, Button, Kvyat, and Felipe tenth.

At the front Vettel would go quickest with a 1m:37.005 running on the supersoft tyre. Valtteri and Felipe were now ninth and thirteenth. Raikkonen would set a 1m:36.896 to make it a Ferrari one-two. Both Williams drivers were back out but would pit after a single lap but would drive through the pit lane completing a practice start at the end of the pit lane. Both Valtteri and Felipe were still running on the supersoft tyre in a longer run. But both would pit with Valtteri returning on the medium tyre and Felipe the soft. Both were on longer runs with ten minutes of the session remaining.

Five minutes remaining and Valtteri had completed twelve laps on the medium and Felipe ten laps on his set of soft tyres on this run. The session would end with Valtteri and Felipe tenth and fourteenth, with the team having split their programme between the two drivers.

Felipe Massa:
After Valtteri's run Felipe would come out running on the soft tyre. He would pit after a single lap. Felipe would report that his car felt alright. Felipe would follow Valtteri out running on the soft tyre, splitting their test programme. A 1m:40.304 from Felipe would see him eleventh. Felipe had also pitted also having completed six laps. After a short stop Felipe would return on the supersoft tyre with his lap being a 1m:39.214 to be sixth. He would drop to seventh with Felipe pitting after just three laps. Felipe was now twelfth with fifty minutes remaining. With just over thirty minutes remaining Felipe was now fourteenth. With his team-mate on the medium tyre Felipe continued to lap on the supersoft tyre. But he would pit shortly after Valtteri also completing a practice pit stop taking on a set of used soft tyres. He would complete a longer run for the rest of the session.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would be first out for Williams with seven minutes of the session completed. Valtteri was on the medium tyre for his first run. Valtteri would pit after one lap without any issues. Valtteri would report "All ok from my side." Valtteri would return with fifteen minutes completed still on the medium tyre. A 1m:41.272 from Valtteri would see him thirteenth. With Felipe setting his time Valtteri would drop to fourteenth. Valtteri would pit having completed six laps. With fifty five minutes remaining Valtteri was back out running on the supersoft tyre. His lap was a 1m:38.723 to move up to seventh. He would pit after three laps currently eighth. He would drop to tenth and having complete twelve laps he would pit completing a practice pit stop returning on a set of used medium tyres. He would also use the rest of the session to complete a longer run.

 
Massa
 

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m36.896s  35
2  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m37.005s  33
3  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m37.133s  33
4  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m37.329s  33
5  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1m38.143s  31
6  Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m38.268s  28
7  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1m38.527s  31
8  Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m38.542s  32
9  Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1m38.569s  31
10 Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1m38.723s  34
11 Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1m38.728s  31
12 Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1m38.828s  28
13 Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1m39.178s  31
14 Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1m39.214s  34
15 Jolyon Palmer	Renault			1m39.774s  32
16 Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari		1m39.890s  22
17 Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes		1m39.941s  36
18 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1m39.979s  35
19 Rio Haryanto		Manor-Mercedes		1m40.550s  33
20 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1m41.066s  32
21 Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari		1m42.954s  4
 
Massa
 

Chinese GP: Williams Martini recovers in FP2
Posted by: Williams F1 (IP Logged)
Date: 15/04/2016 11:08

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