Abu Dhabi GP: Encouraging start for Williams F1 in FP1

Just one week after been in India the Williams F1 team would now appear at the Yas Marina Circuit for the 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The ninety minute Friday morning session would see Pirelli bring their medium and soft tyres with their being several driver changes for this session with Sutil being replaced by Calado, Van der Gar replaced by Kovalainen, and Gonzalez taking over from Chilton. With the start of the session ether would be the usual run of installation laps with Williams F1 drivers pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas coming out quite early. Both would complete a second lap prior to pitting. It would not be until well after the first half hour that Williams would send pit both Pastor and Valtteri.

Pastor would set a 1m:46.288 to be eighth while Valtteri would set a 1m:47.787 to be fifth at that stage of the session. Pastor would have a moment at the final corner running wide but his next lap would see him find time with a 1m:46.184 to be fourth while Valtteri was now fifth. Both Williams drivers would pit with Grosjean leading the times with just under forty minutes of the session remaining, with a time of 1m:45.329s, ahead of Perez, Button and Pastor. But other drivers would improve as more drivers took to the track. Hamilton would push Pastor to fifth as the Mercedes went fourth. Valtteri was now ninth while at the front Vettel would go fastest and he would improve on his time setting a 1m:44.866. Hamilton was now second but it would change as Rosberg went fastest with a 1m:44.741 with Vettel second followed by Raikkonen. But Hamilton would go fastest with a 1m:44.462.

Both Williams cars had returned to the track with both drivers still on the medium tyre. Pastor was now twelfth, 1m:45.879, and Valtteri close behind in fourteenth, 45.928. Webber had moved into second with a 1m:44.712 as Hamilton improved his quickest time with a 1m:44.433. Rosberg was third from Vettel and Raikkonen. But sixth was now Pastor with a 1m:45.150, to be just 0.717 seconds behind Hamilton. Seventh was Di Resta from Grosjean, Perez, and Alonso tenth. Valtteri would find a tenth to improve to be thirteenth with a 1m:45.823. Both Williams drivers had completed sixteen laps so far in the session. Both Williams drivers would pit again with twenty minutes remaining in the session. The track would become quite busy as the session drew to a close. Ten minutes remaining and Pastor was back out for what would be his final run. The top nine were all out on the track as Vettel moved into second with a 1m:44.499.

Di Resta would move up to seventh, 1m:45.172, with Valtteri coming back out. The whole field was out on the track with five minutes remaining. Other drivers would improve with Pastor dropping to ninth. Button was now eighth with Raikkonen sixth and Di Resta seventh. Grosjean would improve to be quickest with a 1m:44.241 from Hamilton and Vettel. Valtteri was still thirteenth as the final minute counted down. The Ferrari's of Alonso and Massa were in twelfth and seventeenth. The session would end with Grosjean still fastest with Pastor and Valtteri staying in ninth and thirteenth.

A encouraging start to the weekend with Pastor inside the top ten. But this session is not at a time when qualifying and the race will be on so not a lot can be draw in terms of performance, with the second session should give a better guide.

Pos Driver         	  Team		        Time     Laps
 1. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m44.241s 20
 2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m44.433s 22
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m44.499s 18
 4. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m44.712s 18
 5. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m44.741s 23
 6. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m44.929s 21
 7. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m45.040s 19
 8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m45.099s 19
 9. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m45.150s 23
10. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m45.331s 19
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m45.378s 21
12. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m45.440s 17
13. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m45.823s 21
14. James Calado          Force India-Mercedes  1m45.924s 19
15. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m46.068s 17
16. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m46.114s 21
17. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m46.124s 17
18. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m46.126s 20
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m47.600s 21
20. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m47.670s 21
21. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m47.723s 22
22. Rodolfo Gonzalez      Marussia-Cosworth     1m49.565s 21