German GP: Williams well off the pace in FP1

With the conditions dry but cloudy with the chance of some rain the opening Friday practice for the 2011 German Grand Prix would get underway. For the AT&T Williams team the Friday sessions would see them test various updates that had been brought along. Pirelli had brought their soft and medium compounds for the teams to use. For Williams Pastor Maldonado would be the first to take to the track joining the usual rush of drivers coming out for their installation laps. Rubens Barrichello would join Pastor out on the track. Both Pastor and Rubens would pit after one lap. Button would be the last driver to come out while for the teams this weekend would see all the teams running their blown diffusers to the same specification that was used at the European Grand Prix at Valencia.

With fifteen minutes of the session completed there had been a series of runs from various drivers but it would be Heidfeld who would set the first time with a 1m:38.313. Perez was next with a 1m:40.730, while Heidfeld would improve with a 1m:37.987. Pastor would be first back out and would set a 1m:40.164 to be fifth, with Rosberg fastest with a 1m:35.751. Pastor would improve to be third with a 1m:37.984, as Hamilton went fastest with a 1m:33.576, running on some experimental soft tyre. With thirty minutes of the session completed the order was Hamilton from Rosberg, Schumacher, Alguersuari, Kobayashi, Perez and Pastor. Rubens would take to the track but he would have a moment locking his front right brake as he slowed down the for Turn one. He would put two wheels off-track before recovering.

Hamilton would lower his time with a 1m:32.996, while Schumacher would improve his time with a 1m:35.054 but remained third. Vettel would be seventh but his next effort would see him third while Webber was now second, 1m:34.022. Button was up to fourth while Vettel would set a new quickest time with a 1m:32.760, improving with a 1m:32.536. Alonso was now fourth but running on the harder tyre. With fifty minutes of the session completed the track would empty as the teams and drivers assessed their early running. Alonso would return this time running on the experimental soft tyre. He would move to the top of the times with a 1m:32.037. Webber, also on the soft tyre, would set a 1m:32.217 to be second behind Alonso.

But Alonso would increase the gap to Webber setting a 1m:31.981. Vettel was now third with Massa fourth from Hamilton and Button. As the session drew to a close there would be several incidents with drivers taking to the gravel with both Kovalainen and Buemi having to cope with the gravel. For Buemi he would go off at Turn five and would end his session in the gravel. With just under five minutes remaining, Alonso was fastest, 1m:31.894, from Webber, Vettel, Massa and Hamilton in fifth. As for the Williams drivers they both would drop down the order and with the end of the session Rubens would be fourteenth, 1m:35.389, and Pastor eighteenth, 1m:36.842. Rubens was nearly 3.5 seconds off the pace while Pastor was close to five seconds off the quickest time. Not the most of encouraging starts for the Williams team but it is very early in the weekend.

Pos Driver           Team		    Time       Laps
 1.  F Alonso        Ferrari               1m31.894s  30
 2.  M Webber        Red Bull-Renault      1m32.217s  24
 3.  S Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      1m32.268s  27
 4.  F Massa         Ferrari               1m32.681s  23
 5.  L Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m32.996s  18
 6.  J Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m33.628s  22
 7.  N Rosberg       Mercedes              1m33.787s  33
 8.  A Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m33.832s  27
 9.  N Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m33.858s  26
10.  M Schumacher    Mercedes              1m33.863s  31
11.  V Petrov        Renault               1m34.094s  22
12.  J Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.115s  23
13.  S Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.371s  20
14.  R Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth     1m35.389s  24
15.  N Heidfeld      Renault               1m35.444s  22
16.  S Perez         Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.371s  22
17.  H Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault         1m36.392s  29
18.  P Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth     1m36.842s  29
19.  K Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.882s  27
20.  N Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth          1m38.504s  22
21.  K Chandhok      Lotus-Renault         1m38.765s  19
22.  D Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth          1m39.279s  24
23.  T Glock         Virgin-Cosworth       1m40.109s  23
24.  J D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth       1m40.428s  22