Steiermark GP: Williams Racing FP2 sees little change


By Andrew Hooper
June 25 2021

The second Friday practice for the 2021 Steiermark GP would again see the Williams Racing Team with both their drivers well down the times in 16th and 19th with George Russell again leading team-mate Nicholas Latifi. It was a session that saw both drivers complete soft tyre runs prior to focusing on longer runs. Overall it was a session where it was hard to gauge the drivers performances. Hopefully there will be a step forward come Saturday.

 
 Williams Racing Steiermark GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Latifi
 

Team Summary:
Coming off a 15th and 17th in the opening Friday practice session the Williams Racing Team would commence their second session in Austria. Both Williams drivers would come out early with a large numbers of drivers running on a mix of all three tyre types. Alonso would set a 1m:06.984 to be quickest from Sainz and Ocon. Verstappen was now quickest with a 1m:06.722 from Alonso and Leclerc. Hamilton was fourth followed by Sainz and Ocon. Alonso would return to the top of the times with a 1m:06.651. The Williams drivers were currently 11th and 13th. Again Verstappen on the hard would go quickest with a 1m:06.643 but Hamilton would move ahead with a 1m:06.358.

Norris would improve to be fourth on the hard followed by Leclerc and Ricciardo in sixth. Verstappen would respond with a 1m:06.192 to again be quickest. Bottas on the soft tyre would move into second behind Verstappen. On the soft tyres Stroll would go fastest only to see Vettel move ahead with a 1m:05.934. Verstappen was now third followed by Bottas, Hamilton, Perez, Alonso, Ricciardo, Norris and George tenth. On the soft tyre Ocon would go fastest with a 1m:05.790 only to see Hamilton quicker with a 1m:05.335. Verstappen also on the soft tyre would move into second followed by Ocon, Alonso, Vettel, Norris, Stroll, and Sainz eighth.

Ricciardo was able to move into second ahead of Ocon. Hamilton would have his time deleted dropping back to fourth. The Williams drivers were currently 16tth and 19th. Bottas was down in a surprising 12th splitting the two Ferrari's. The Williams drivers were running on the hard and medium tyre presumably doing their race simulations. Verstappen was quickest with a 1m:05.412 followed by Ricciardo, Ocon, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Norris, Stroll, Perez and Giovinazzi tenth. The Williams pair were still 16th and 19th with fourteen minutes remaining. They would continue their race simulations on the hard and medium tyres. With the end of the session the positions would remain the same with the Williams drivers remaining down the times. Very difficult to gauge the performance from Williams Racing. Again the drivers would complete practice pit stops on the grid.

George Russell:
George would follow his team-mate out but he was on the soft tyre for his first run. A 1m:07.503 and George was currently eighth. This would become 13th but he was the only driver on the soft tyre. With seven laps on the soft tyres George would set a 1m:07.211 to now be 12th. He would drop to 14th to be behind Raikkonen. This would become 15th as he continued to lap on the soft tyre. With fifteen minutes completed in the session George had completed eleven laps on the soft tyre and would set a 1m;06.855 to jump up to ninth. This would become 10th. With a 1m:06.648 George would move up to eighth but would again drop to 10th. This was done on soft tyres that were fourteen laps old. With sixteen laps completed George would pit currently 11th. As other drivers set qualifying simulations he would drop to 16th. After a short stop George would return on the hard tyre for what was most likely a race simulation. With ten minutes remaining he would complete seventeen laps on the hard tyre. George would pit after a nineteen lap run. He would return on a soft but would pit after a single lap. Like his team-mate he would return to complete a practice pit stop on the grid.

Nicholas Latifi:
With the start of the session Nicholas would come out early running on the medium tyre. Nicholas would set a 1m:07.852 to be currently tenth. He would drop to be 13th behind Vettel. He would drop to 14th as he pitted after a five lap run and was right behind his team-mate. He would return on a soft tyre for his next run but he would pit after a single lap. In the pits he would drop to 19th. With just under forty minutes remaining Nicholas would return remaining on the soft tyre. But again he would pit after a very short two lap run. With twenty five minutes remaining Nicholas would return but had switched to the medium tyre. With ten minutes remaining Nicholas was on a very long run on the medium tyre having completed thirteen laps. With the end of the session Nicholas would complete twenty one laps on the medium tyre prior to pitting and returning to complete his practice starts on the grid.

 
Russell
 
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1  Max Verstappen Red Bull 37 1'05.412
2  Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 35 1'05.748 0.336 0.336
3  Esteban Ocon Alpine 35 1'05.790 0.378 0.042
4  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 35 1'05.796 0.384 0.006
5  Fernando Alonso Alpine 39 1'05.827 0.415 0.031
6  Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 38 1'05.934 0.522 0.107
7  Lando Norris McLaren 39 1'05.994 0.582 0.060
8  Lance Stroll Aston Martin 36 1'06.079 0.667 0.085
9  Sergio Perez Red Bull 36 1'06.089 0.677 0.010
10  Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 37 1'06.145 0.733 0.056
11  Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 39 1'06.147 0.735 0.002
12  Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 32 1'06.251 0.839 0.104
13  Charles Leclerc Ferrari 39 1'06.270 0.858 0.019
14  Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 41 1'06.297 0.885 0.027
15  Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 39 1'06.451 1.039 0.154
16  George Russell Williams 39 1'06.628 1.216 0.177
17  Mick Schumacher Haas 29 1'06.886 1.474 0.258
18  Nikita Mazepin Haas 30 1'07.404 1.992 0.518
19  Nicholas Latifi Williams 32 1'07.669 2.257 0.265
20  Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 0
 
Latifi
 

Steiermark GP: Williams Racing FP2 sees little change
Posted by: Williams F1 (IP Logged)
Date: 25/06/2021 15:36

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