Australian GP: Williams outside top ten in FP2

Having seen their drivers Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna finish the first Friday practice session for the 2012 Australian Grand Prix in eighth and fourteenth the team was hoping to see an improvement in the second session. But again the second session would be affected by rain with showers hitting the circuit. But it was expected to not last long so it would most likely be a case of little activity on the track.

But despite the wet track we would have both Sauber's and Torro Rosso cars venture out. Full wet weather tyres was the only choice in the conditions. Bruno would also come out while Vergne would set a 1m:50.175 followed by Ricciardo, 1m:51.424. Both Sauber's would pit along with Bruno. Ricciardo had improved with a 1m:48.874 and Vergne a 1m:50.081. Bruno's stop was brief while Vergne went faster with a 1m:49.557. Pastor and Hulkenberg would come out for their first runs, while Ricciardo set a 1m:47.478. But team-mate Vergne would improve to set a 1m:47.166 to be fastest.

Pastor's first lap was a 1m:50.661, while Hulkenberg moved into third. Button would take to the track as Kobayashi had taken the top spot with a 1m:46.098. Alonso would be the first driver to come out on the intermediate tyres. Kobayashi would improve with a 1m:45.117. But Alonso would move ahead setting a 1m:44.921 showing that the intermediate was the tyre to use now. Perez would put his car through the gravel at Turn fourteen despite the improving conditions.

Pastor had dropped to eleventh while Bruno would return to the track not having set a time. Alonso would improve with a 1m:42.171 as more drivers took to the track on intermediates. Massa would go fastest with a 1m:41.976 to make it a Ferrari one-two. Di rest and Webber were now third and fourth. But as the conditions continued to improve it would be Pastor who would go fastest with a 1m:40.71. But just as quickly Button, having pitted to swap to intermediates who would go fastest with a 1m:39.497. Pastor would improve to be just 0.089s behind Button's time with a lap of 1m:39.586.

Vettel was now in fourth, 1m:40.548, while Pastor was on an improved lap. Button has taken 1.5 seconds off his time with a 1m:37.989 but Pastor would move ahead with a 1m:37.721. Bruno had pitted still not having set a time. Pastor's time would be beaten by Schumacher with a 1m:37.649. Pastor was second from Button, Vettel, Webber, Vergne, Hulkenberg, Perez, Ricciardo, and Kovalainen in tenth. Pastor would pit while Ricciardo would move up to fifth with a 1m:39.414. Both Webber and Kovalainen would take to the grass at Turn one. Torro Rosso's Vergne would move ahead of his team-mate and into fifth with a 1m:38.994.

Vettel was now third with a 1m:37.971 with Perez now taking fifth with a time of 1m:38.515. But as conditions started to dry it would be Perez who would go fastest with a 1m:37.189. But the session would be stopped when a bollard marking the pit lane entry ended up on the racing line. While everyone returned to their pits it would be cleared but with the restart of the session there would not be rush of drivers coming back out as they waited to see whether they could come out on slicks. Pastor was now third while Bruno still had yet to set a time.

With twenty five minutes remaining it would be the HRT of Karthikeyan who would be first out, running on medium tyres. He would set a 1m:48.730 to be nineteenth. As the session drew to a close several drivers would take to the track running on the soft tyre, including Vettel, Grosjean, and Button. Hamilton was back out on the medium tyre. Pastor would also return to the track with fifteen minutes remaining. Grosjean would use his soft tyres to set a new quickest time with a 1m:36.190, while Webber moved up to second.

But Vettel would take the top spot with a 1m:34.545, while for Marussia Glock would put his car into third. Next it would be Massa who went fastest, running on the harder tyre, with a 1m:34.001. It was all rapidly changing as drivers took advantage of the improved conditions. Di Resta had set a 1m:31.639. Schumacher would be next to set a new quickest time with a lap of 1m:30.643. But the times continued to fall as Hulkenberg went fastest with a 1m:29.808, with Perez second from Alonso, Schumacher, and Di Resta.

Pastor would lose the rear end of his FW34 at Turn fifteen seeing leave the track. He was able to return and continue as the session drew to a close. It would be Schumacher in the last seconds who would go fastest with a 1m:29.183. For the Williams team Pastor and Bruno would finish in seventeenth and nineteenth. Given the wet conditions it would be difficult to draw any conclusions as to the pace of the Williams pair. Hopefully a dry Saturday would see them move up the times.

Pos  Driver	    	   Team		  	  Time       Laps
 1.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m29.183s  16
 2.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m29.292s  19
 3.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m30.199s  23
 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m30.341s  13
 5.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m30.709s  14
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m31.466s  13
 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m31.505s  14
 8.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m31.932s  16
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m32.184s  17
10.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m32.194s  19
11.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m32.296s  20
12.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m32.632s  17
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m32.767s  15
14.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m32.822s  11
15.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m33.039s  18
16.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m33.252s  11
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m34.108s  21
18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m34.275s  7
19.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m34.312s  17
20.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m34.485s  29
21.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m34.604s  31
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m34.770s  13
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m42.627s  16
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth                      1