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Prior to the
start of the second Friday practice for the 2012 German Grand Prix the rain
would again start to fall. For those teams with upgrades the rain was going
to make things very difficult. For Pirelli their hard tyre test was going to
be made difficult if not impossible. The practice session would commence
with no one taking to the track. For the Williams team Pastor had been fines for speeding in the first
practice session. The weather reports had the rain lasting for at least
another hour. Despite the rain it would be Bruno Senna who would come out
first having missed practice earlier in the day. Running on full wets he
would complete one lap prior to pitting at least allowing the Williams team
to check the repairs on his car.
Drivers would start to get into their cars as they finally realised that
they must get some wet weather running just in case Saturday is also wet.
Vergne would be first out followed by Pic and Rosberg, all on full wets. The
drivers were told that there were some rivers of water running across
certain parts of the track, in particular Turns eight to ten. Vergne would set a 1m:43.330 as Glock also took to the
track. A 1m:43.222 from Rosberg to be fastest with Pic setting a 1m:49.814.
More drivers started to come out including Ricciardo, Vettel, and
Hulkenberg. Vergne would go fastest with a 1m:41.135. Weather forecast had
another heavy shower arriving in twenty minutes. a 1m:40.666 from Rosberg
but Vergne would move ahead with a 1m:39.843.
We now had Schumacher, Kobayashi, Webber, Di Resta, Karthikeyan and Grosjean
also leaving the pit lane. A 1m:39.980 from Rosberg but he remained in
second. Bruno was also back out on the track while Vettel moved into third
with a 1m:40.713. Hulkenberg was fourth from Ricciardo, Glock, and Pic.
Rosberg was again fastest with a 1m:39.021 with an hour remaining in the
session. Vergne would improve with a 1m:39.455 but remained second. Webber
was up to third, 1m:39.721, but Di Resta would take this spot with a
1m:39.592. Vettel was now fifth from Schumacher, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg,
Raikkonen, and Grosjean in tenth. Webber would improve to be second,
1m:39.305, with Grosjean also improving with a time of 1m:39.333. Vettel
would go fastest with a 1m:38.243 but Schumacher would move ahead with a
time of 1m:38.194. The order was changing rapidly with Perez now in fourth.
Vergne would improve to be third while for Williams Pastor was in twelfth,
1m:40.695, and Bruno sixteenth, 1m:41.803. Rosberg was fourth but Ricciardo
would move ahead with a 1m:38.449. Fifth was now Rosberg from Perez, Di
Resta, Raikkonen, Kobayashi, and Webber tenth. Schumacher would pit joining
Rosberg. Bruno was on a better lap as Hamilton and Alonso also came out from
their pits. Bruno would set a 1m:39.777 to be thirteenth pushing Pastor down
to fourteenth. Vergne would go fastest with a 1m:38.051. Perez was up to
third, 1m:38.228, while Pastor would move ahead of Bruno with a lap time of
1m:39.638, to be fourteenth. Bruno had dropped to sixteenth. The times would
come down as Alonso went fastest with a 1m:37.395. Perez was now second from
Ricciardo and Grosjean.
Rosberg was out on the intermediate tyre as Pastor pitted. Massa was up to
fourth, 1m:37.889, while Rosberg would put his intermediate tyres to good
effect to be fastest with a 1m:37.285. Grosjean was up to fourth with a
1m:37.653. Hamilton was down in fourteenth but he would improve to be
fourth, 1m:37.646. Rosberg would continue to improve as both Ferrari's had
pitted to take on intermediates. Pastor and Bruno were now seventeenth and
nineteenth. Button was down in twentieth while at the front Rosberg would
improve with a 1m:35.833 to stay fastest. More drivers were taking on the
intermediate tyre as Alonso also improved to be fastest with a 1m:34.593.
Massa was seventh but fastest in sector one. Vettel was up to third,
1m:36.682, with Perez now fourth. More quick times appeared with Massa going
fastest, 1m:34.576, with Alonso second. Raikkonen was now third from
Rosberg, Vergne, Webber, Vettel, Perez, Hamilton, and Grosjean in tenth.
Vergne and Ricciardo moved into third and fourth but Rosberg again moved to
the top of the times with a 1m:33.824. Vettel was now second but Schumacher
would move ahead with a 1m:33.916. Rosberg would again be second but
Hamilton would take this spot with a 1m:33.676. Times were coming down with
Grosjean going fastest, 1m:32.897, from Rosberg, Vettel, Massa, and
Ricciardo. Such was the rapid change in times Schumacher would go fastest
with a 1m:32.777. Grosjean was second but Vergne would take this spot with a
1m:32.896. But Raikkonen would take second with Webber now third. Alonso
would again be fastest with a 1m:31.207. Bruno was back out on the track
with the track drying out quite quickly. Pastor was nineteenth and Bruno
twentieth. Grosjean would go fastest with a 1m:30.666 from Alonso
and Perez. Webber was now fourth from Rosberg and Ricciardo in sixth.
Both Massa and Vettel would improve with Massa and Vettel second and third.
Bruno was now in seventeenth with a 1m:33.881. Pastor was now out on the
track with Grosjean fastest with a 1m:30.181 but Vettel would move ahead
with a 1m:30.097. But Massa would also improve to be fastest with a 1m:29.719.
Raikkonen was now second with Vettel third and Button fourth. Fifth was
Grosjean from Webber, Di Resta, and on his first lap Pastor would move into
ninth, 1m:30.493. Bruno was now in seventh, 1m:30.291, while at the front Raikkonen
was fastest with a 1m:29.327. Vettel was now fastest with a 1m:28.835 but
quickly Button would move ahead with a 1m:28.516. Pastor was now in third,
1m:28.835, but Vettel would move ahead. Bruno would pit after a spin
currently in tenth. Grosjean was now fastest with a 1m:28.420 as Ricciardo
moved into second, 1m:28.513.
Vettel would go fastest with a 1m:27.902 but Pastor would move ahead with a
1m:27.476. Bruno had dropped to thirteenth while for Marussia Pic was
eleventh. Rosberg was now second, 1m:27.564, from Vettel, Perez, Grosjean,
and Ricciardo in sixth. Pastor would pit as the further rain fasted to fall
again. Hulkenberg would improve to be sixth, 1m:28.495. Bruno was getting
ready to go out on slicks but with the rain there was no point in him
running with these tyres. The rain would start to fall even heavier the
track would again be empty with twenty minutes left in the session.
Schumacher would leave the pit lane followed by Hamilton. Schumacher was in
twenty third and Hamilton nineteenth. Raikkonen would also come out followed
by Bruno. Hamilton would run off the track but was able to continue. Bruno
had remained on the intermediate tyre for this run.
We also had Petrov, Rosberg, Alonso, and Kobayashi out on the track. Rosberg
would pit as Vettel came out of the pits. Hamilton had also pitted as
Rosberg returned to the track. Perez was also out on the track with Vergne
also coming out. Rosberg would again pit joined by Schumacher. Alonso was down in
twentieth as Vergne pitted as Hulkenberg left his pit. Bruno would leave the
track at Turn eight seeing him continue only to pit. Ten minutes of the
session remaining while Ricciardo would also go off the track at Turn
thirteen, the same corner as Valtteri. He would be stuck in the gravel
seeing a tractor coming to remove him. Several drivers would come out on the
intermediate including Webber, Button, Vergne, Massa and for Williams Pastor
would also come out. Bruno was also out on the track with only a handful of drivers till in their pits with five
minutes remaining.
In the closing moments of the session Schumacher would go off to cause a red
flag. His Mercedes was badly damaged as Schumacher got out of his car.
Schumacher had lost his car with the rear of his car spinning around across
the grass and into the barrier. He would have both front and rear damage to
his Mercedes. Everyone would pit and the session came to an end. Again it
was a difficult session with variable conditions affecting everyone's
running. With the end of the session the order was
Pastor fastest from Rosberg, Vettel, Perez, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo,
Button, Webber, and Raikkonen in tenth. Hamilton and Alonso were down in
nineteenth and twentieth.
For Williams it was encouraging to see Pastor fastest but to a
degree it was a case of been out on the right tyre at the right time and
beating the rain that came late in the session.
Bruno was down in sixteenth and not having the best of
sessions running off the track at one time. |
