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For the Williams
F1 team the opening Friday practice for the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix would
see Valtteri Bottas in for Bruno Senna with Bruno sitting out this session.
As for tyres Pirelli had brought their hard and soft tyres for this event.
The session would get underway with Vergne out first. For Valtteri it would
be his first run at the Suzuka circuit as more drivers took to the track. Valtteri would be first
out for Williams and would pit after a single installation lap. Pastor
Maldonado would be the last driver to leave the pit lane. Valtteri would
report that all was OK with his car. Schumacher was the only driver still
out on the track while Pastor still had yet to come out. With just under ten
minutes completed Pastor would finally come out and pit after one lap.
The first drivers to return to the track were Vergne and Rosberg but Rosberg
would pit after one lap. Kobayashi was next out while Vergne pitted.
Kobayashi would also pit with Hamilton next out with an hour ten minutes
remaining. Several drivers including Alonso and Vettel were not in a hurry
to get back out as Karthikeyan left the pits. Hamilton would set the first
time with a 1m:37.435. Next to come out was De la Rosa as Hamilton improved
with a 1m:37.008. Karthikeyan would set a slow 1m:43.757 to be 6.7 seconds
slower than Hamilton. He would improve with a 1m:40.729 while Hamilton would
improve with a 1m:34.910. A 1m:41.293 from De la Rosa to be third. More
drivers would start to come out including Pic, Raikkonen, and Button.
Hamilton would pit as Perez came out. Karthikeyan had improved with a
1m:39.453 while Raikkonen had pitted. He would be followed by Button with
neither driver setting a time.
A 1m:44.500 from Pic as Perez set a 1m:38.996 to be second. We now had both
Ferrari's, Grosjean, Webber, Glock, and Kobayashi out on the track. Both HRT
cars had pitted as Van der Gar, running at Caterham, and Schumacher took to
the track. Grosjean was now third with a time of 1m:37.507 while Perez had
improved with a 1m:36.393. We now had both Williams drivers out on the track
and Ricciardo. Massa would move into second with a 1m:35.915. Vettel was
also out on the track as Webber went sixth with a 1m:39.268. Perez had
pitted as Schumacher went fourth, 1m:36.399. Alonso was up to fifth as
Kobayashi improving to be second with a 1m:35.876. Massa was now third
followed by Perez, Schumacher, Alonso, and Pastor. Pastor's time was a
1m:36.540. But the times continued to fall with Grosjean moving into second
only to be passed by Webber with a 1m:35.289. Hamilton was still in his pit
after his early run.
Pastor was now down in eleventh, 1m:37.209, while Alonso moved up to third
with a time of 1m:35.697. Massa would also improve to take third with a
1m:35.338 while for Williams Valtteri would be down in fifteenth, 1m:37.942.
Pastor would improve with a 1m:35.478 to be fifth as Kobayashi moved up to
second, 1m:35.199. But this would become third as Webber went fastest with a
1m:34.856. Webber and Kobayashi would pit. With the Williams team is was
reported that they were trialling a new exhaust. As the times continued to
improve we would see Rosberg move up to third , 1m:35.059, while Pastor was now seventh while Valtteri was
fifteenth. More drivers would start to return to their pits. On the tyre
front only the hard tyre had been used so far. Both Pastor and Valtteri had
pitted with forty minutes remaining in the session.
While everyone were returning to the pits Hamilton would come back out. The
top ten was Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg, Kobayashi, Massa, Hulkenberg, Pastor,
Alonso, Perez, and Grosjean tenth. Di Resta and Button had yet to set a time
as Alonso pitted. Button's first timed lap would see him set a 1m:35.249 to
move up to fifth. Both Hulkenberg and Alonso were back out on the track as
Button continued setting a 1m:34.507 to go fastest. Di Resta was back out
and would set a 1m:35.951 to be twelfth. He would set a 1m:35.714 to now be
eleventh. Pastor would be the first back out for Williams as more drivers returned to the track. Hamilton would also
improve with a time of 1m:34.740 to again be second. The track was again
busy as more drivers came back including Valtteri. With under thirty minutes
remaining Di Resta had moved up to seventh, 1m:35.374. Pastor was now ninth
and Valtteri eighteenth as Button and Hamilton pitted. The Lotus pair of
Raikkonen and Grosjean were twelfth and thirteenth. Vettel and Schumacher
were down in sixteenth and seventeenth.
With eighteen minutes remaining both Pastor and Valtteri continued out on
the track with both driver having completed sixteen laps. Pastor would be
the first to come in after his second run as Valtteri set a personal best in
sector one. Schumacher was now up to fifth with a 1m:35.122 followed by
Kobayashi and Massa. With fifteen minutes remaining there were only a handful of cars out on the track.
Valtteri would pit while Pastor would return shortly after. The track was
again becoming busier as drivers came out for their final runs. Valtteri was
also back out with seven minutes remaining. Not a lot was happening in
regard to times with Button still fastest from Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Massa, Di Resta,
Hulkenberg, and Pastor in tenth. Valtteri was down in eighteenth as the
session drew to a close. There were now only three drivers in the pits,
Massa, Ricciardo, and Glock.
As the session drew to a lose only Glock remained in his pit while out on
the track Rosberg pulled off the track at the S curves at the back of the
pits seeing him get out of his car. His car was craned away as the session
came to an end. Pastor would finish the session still tenth and Valtteri in
eighteenth. The drivers would complete practice starts on the grid prior to
pitting. For the Williams team it was a positive start to the weekend with
Pastor tenth and Valtteri on his first run on the Suzuka track eighteenth.
Both drivers would complete twenty four trouble free laps. Only the hard
Pirelli tyre had been used in the session with the soft tyre expected to be
seen later in the second Friday practice. |
