United States GP: Massa 5th for Williams in FP2


By Andrew Hooper
November 1 2014

With Valtteri Bottas having returned to the driving the Williams Martini team would have a productive second Friday practice for the 2014 United States GP. The session would see Felipe Massa finish in fifth while Valtteri was 11th. The session would also show some encouraging pace in the teams longer runs as part of their programme.

 
  United States GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Bottas
 

The second Friday practice session for the 2014 United States Grand Prix would see Valtteri Bottas resume his regular driving duties for the Williams Martini Team. Valtteri would be one of the fist out with the start of the session, running on the medium tyre. He would set a 1m:44.534 on his first timed lap. Button would go second as more drivers took to the track, including both Torro Rosso cars. Vergne had taken over from Max Verstappen. Grosjean was now third as Magnussen and Raikkonen both came out. Button would go fastest with a 1m:42.427. Magnussen would move into second and Hulkenberg third. With ten minutes of the session completed Valtteri would move back into second with a 1m:42.891.

As more of the field took to the track including the second Williams of Felipe Massa Hamilton would move to the top of the times with a 1m:40.993. Magnussen was now second followed by Button, Alonso, Ricciardo, and Kvyat. Hamilton would be joined by team-mate Rosberg as the German set a 1m:41.499 to move into second. Valtteri was now back in his pit and had dropped to eleventh with twenty minutes of the session completed. Felipe was now in sixth with a 1m:42.540 having spun at Turn one. Hamilton would lower his quickest time with a 1m:40.615, as Rosberg went fastest in sectors one and two. Ricciardo and Kvyat would improve to go sixth and seventh ahead of Felipe.

Felipe would pit currently in ninth while Valtteri had dropped to twelfth. At this stage of the session everyone was still on the medium tyre. After a short stop Felipe would return having made a front wing change. Rosberg would complete his lap taking over at the top of the times with a 1m:40.078. Valtteri was back out on the track and would be able to improve his time setting a 1m:42.307 to be eighth. Felipe was now eleventh and had pitted. Magnussen would be the first to try the soft tyre setting a 1m:41.616 to be third behind Rosberg and Hamilton. More drivers would join him on the option tyre as Gutierrez moved up to fourth with a time of 1m:41.420, also benefitting from the softer tyre. Perez was now sixth also on the soft tyre while team-mate Hulkenberg would move up to fourth, 1m:40.800. Valtteri and Felipe were now eleventh and fourteenth but had yet to start their soft tyre runs.

Both Williams cars would come out and Felipe would eventually set a 1m:40.457 to be fifth and Valtteri could only manage a 1m:40.828 to be eleventh. Both Mercedes cars had also completed soft tyre runs with Hamilton taking back the quickest time setting a1m:39.085 while Rosberg would set a 1m:39.088. Alonso was now third followed by Ricciardo and Felipe. Sixth was Raikkonen followed by Kvyat, Magnussen, Button, and Hulkenberg in tenth. As the session progressed drivers would move into the usual longer runs testing fuel loads and tyre durability. For the Williams team they would split their runs with Felipe on the soft tyre and Valtteri the medium. With the end of the session it was reported that Hamilton had a fluid leak that had seen him pit earlier than would be expected. At one stage in the later part of the session it had been reported that Valtteri, on 21-lap old mediums, was lapping in similar times to Alonso, who was on softs that are around half that age. Encouraging for the Williams team.

 
Bottas
 
Pos Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1m39.085s 18 
2 Nico Rosberg 		Mercedes 		1m39.088s 34 
3 Fernando Alonso 	Ferrari 		1m40.189s 29 
4 Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull/Renault 	1m40.390s 30 
5 Felipe Massa 		Williams/Mercedes 	1m40.457s 36 
6 Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		1m40.543s 32 
7 Daniil Kvyat 		Toro Rosso/Renault 	1m40.631s 34 
8 Kevin Magnussen 	McLaren/Mercedes 	1m40.641s 38 
9 Jenson Button 	McLaren/Mercedes 	1m40.698s 36 
10 Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India/Mercedes 	1m40.800s 25 
11 Valtteri Bottas 	Williams/Mercedes 	1m40.828s 37 
12 Romain Grosjean 	Lotus/Renault 		1m41.054s 31 
13 Jean-Eric Vergne 	Toro Rosso/Renault 	1m41.110s 36 
14 Sergio Perez 	Force India/Mercedes 	1m41.123s 35 
15 Pastor Maldonado 	Lotus/Renault 		1m41.158s 37 
16 Adrian Sutil 	Sauber/Ferrari 		1m41.332s 33 
17 Esteban Gutierrez 	Sauber/Ferrari 		1m41.420s 34 
18 Sebastian Vettel 	Red Bull/Renault 	1m44.437s 19
 
Massa