Abu Dhabi GP: Encouraging FP2 for Williams
Pastor Maldonado
By Andrew Hooper
November 2 2012
Again the Williams F1 team would come away with an encouraging result after the second Friday practice for the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP. Pastor Maldonado would finish in ninth while Bruno Senna ws eleventh.
| Abu Dhabi GP Friday 2nd Practice |
 |
|
The second Friday practice
session for the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix would see a rush of drivers taking
to the track all looking to set lap times very quickly. First to set a time
would be Perez with a 1m:45.819 but the times would change rapidly. With
five minutes of the session completed it would be Vettel fastest with a
1m:43.067 from Raikkonen and Grosjean. Perez was now fourth while for
Williams Pastor Maldonado would be fifth with a 1m:45.179. Team-mate Bruno
Senna, replacing Valtteri Bottas, was down in eighth with a time of
1m:45.455. Bruno was running with a new helmet colour in line with one of his sponsors Gillette. Vettel's
first lap time was 1m:43.323 but his next lap would see him improve but as
he continued to put in the laps he would improve to set a time of 1m:42.779.
With the session being run late in the afternoon the cooler conditions were
certainly helping. Schumacher was now third with a 1m:44.339 from Grosjean,
Hulkenberg, with Bruno improving from outside the top ten to be sixth,
1m:44.485. Pastor was now eighth with a 1m:44.649 with only Raikkonen back in the pits. Now it was Button's turn to move up the times setting a 1m:42.804 to be second. Webber was now third from Grosjean and Massa. Bruno had dropped to ninth and had pitted . Pastor was now in twelfth while at the front Hamilton would move up to second with a 1m:42.790, seeing Button now third. Vettel and Button would pit as Rosberg moved up to sixth with a 1m:43.838. Pastor had also pitted after setting a 1m:44.324 to be ahead of Bruno. The pair were now thirteenth and fourteenth. Alonso was up to seventh, 1m:43.897, while Hamilton was second but with a 1m:42.790 to be just 0.060 behind Vettel. Alonso would improve to be fourth, 1m:43.067, with most of the field back in their pits after their first runs. Bruno was quickly back out as the sun started to set. In the early stages the medium tyre was the tyre of choice. Raikkonen and Di Resta were back out while Bruno was still on the medium tyre. Bruno would set a 1m:44.268 to go thirteenth and one place ahead of Pastor. Button would return to the track joined by Rosberg. Hamilton was on a quick lap going fastest in sector one and two. He would finish his lap with a 1m:42.095 to be 0.635 ahead of Vettel. Bruno would continue to improve setting a 1m:44.012 followed by a 1m:43.751 to be seventh. Pastor was now also back out along with more drivers. Both Red Bull's were back out on the track with just over an hour remaining. Pastor was now fourteenth. After his second run Bruno would pit with only a handful of drivers still in their pits. Rosberg was now tenth, 1m:43.838, but would improve to be eighth. Webber would improve to be fourth, 1m:42.925, while Vergne would be the first driver to try the soft tyre. Bruno had dropped to eleventh and was back out. Schumacher would improve to be sixth with a 1m:43.484. Vettel would set a 1m:42,622 to close the gap to Hamilton. With the sun falling the track lights would start to take over as Massa moved up to sixth with a 1m:43.211. Pastor had pitted while Bruno continued his run. The track was again fairly quite as drivers returned to their pits. The top ten were all back in their pits with fifty minutes remaining. Perez was out running on the soft tyre while Bruno would improve to be seventh with a 1m:43.479 pitting again having set his time. Button would leave the pit lane for his next run joined by Button who was on the soft tyre. Pastor would also come out joining other drivers running on the soft. Webber, Hamilton, and Grosjean were also on the soft tyre as Rosberg set a 1m:43.200 to be sixth also on the soft tyre. Bruno had dropped to ninth as Hamilton went fastest in sector three. Grosjean would use his soft tyres to good effect setting a 1m:42.500 to be second. Vergne had pitted with what was brake problems as Button set a 1m:42.412 to be second. Vettel was also on a quicker lap setting a1m:42.056 having gone fastest in sector three. Pastor was also on a quicker lap setting a 1m:43.566 to be thirteenth. Alonso would also find improvements going fifth with a 1m:42.806. Hulkenberg was now tenth as Vettel set a 1m:41.751 to be fastest by 0.344 seconds. Massa would improve to be sixth while Pastor would set a 1m:42.998 to be eighth. Bruno was back out on the track running on the soft tyre down in thirteenth. Hamilton had again improved with a 1m:41.919 closing the gap to Vettel. After his run Pastor would pit with thirty minutes remaining. Button would return to the track joined by Grosjean. Bruno would improve with a 1m:43.191 to be tenth. On the softer tyre Raikkonen would set a 1m:42.532 to be sixth, while Grosjean was in fifth. Pastor would join Bruno put on the track looking to complete a longer run. Webber would pit getting out of his car with ten minutes remaining. Seven minutes remaining and there were just two drivers still in the pits. Pastor and Bruno were now ninth and eleventh. As the final minutes counted down only Webber was in the pits. Webber had stopped with a fluid leak issue with his car seeing his mechanics start to work on his car. As the session ended it was Vettel fastest from Hamilton, Button, Webber, Grosjean, Raikkonen, Alonso, Massa, Pastor, and Perez tenth. Bruno was eleventh with both Williams drivers closing the gap to those at the front. Again another encouraging session for the Williams F1 team. |
 |
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m41.751 33 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m41.919s 33 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m42.412s 35 4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m42.466s 21 5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m42.500s 33 6. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m42.532s 27 7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m42.587s 30 8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m42.823s 32 9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m42.998s 36 10. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m43.106s 35 11. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m43.191s 33 12. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m43.200s 35 13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m43.255s 33 14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m43.267s 31 15. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m43.578s 33 16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m43.689s 31 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m44.260s 26 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m45.073s 18 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m45.245s 35 20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m45.782s 32 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m46.589s 34 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m46.671s 30 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m46.707s 25 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m47.406s 34 |
 |
Abu Dhabi GP: Encouraging FP2 for Williams
Posted by: Williams F1 (IP Logged)
Date: 02/11/2012 14:49
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.