Belgian GP: Williams Martini outside top ten in FP2

Team Summary:
The opening Friday practice had seen Williams Martini drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finish in tenth and fourteenth. Both Williams drivers would come out very early as the session commenced. The early quickest time was from Vettel with a 1m:52.606 with Valtteri and Felipe second and third. The track was now very busy as other drivers went quicker with Raikkonen setting a 1m:52.292. Valtteri and Felipe would drop to fourth and fifth. A 1m:51.135 from Kvyat with Rosberg now second and Hamilton third. After their first runs Valtteri and Felipe were seventh and eighth with just over an hour and fifteen minutes remaining.

Rosberg would go quickest with a 1m:51.052. Valtteri and Felipe had dropped to ninth and tenth. First out on the soft option tyre was Vettel. He would set a 1m:50.940 to be quickest. More drivers were coming out on the soft tyre with the Williams pair ninth and eleventh with just under an hour remaining. A 1m:49.385 from Rosberg with Ericsson now second followed by Vettel. Hamilton would move up to second with a 1m:49.687 and Raikkonen now third from Ericsson and Nasr.

With fifty two minutes remaining Felipe and Valtteri were thirteenth and fifteenth. Valtteri would improve to be eleventh after his option tyre run. This would become twelfth while after his option tyre run Felipe was thirteenth. Thirty minutes remaining and Valtteri and Felipe weer fourteenth and sixteenth. With twenty five minutes remaining this session would also be red flagged after Rosberg suffered a tyre blow out going of at Blanchimont. There were bits of tyre tyre left all over the track with other cars coming across the debris. With the restart of the session it would only be Felipe coming back out with Valtteri waiting on his pit with twelve minutes remaining.

But the session would again be red flagged as Ericsson crashed his car at the exit at Pouhon making heavy contact with the rear of his Sauber. He had run wide at put the rear of his car onto the Astroturf at the side of the track seeing it snap sideways and spin off and into the barriers. Replays had shown that it was a failure of the tyre that had caused Rosberg's incident. The session would restart with five minutes remaining with both Williams cars coming out continuing on the soft tyre. The session would end with Valtteri and Felipe fourteenth and sixteenth. Both drivers were around two seconds off the quickest time a margin that would be of major concern for the Williams team. But the Williams team would indicate that they had worked through their plans for the day and that Saturday would be about performance.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would follow Valtteri out of the pits. Like Valtteri Felipe would quickly set a time with a 1m:52.884 to be third. Felipe would improve with a 1m:52.802 having dropped to eighth. Felipe would also pit after his first run. Felipe would return to the track with an hour and ten minutes remaining. Felipe would improve with a 1m:52.547 to be eighth. Felipe would set a personal best in sector one having completed ten laps on his medium tyres. He would set a 1m:52.468 to currently be ninth. Felipe was on a long run on the medium tyre and would pit having completed fourteen laps. With just over forty five minutes remaining Felipe would come out for his option tyre run. Felipe would set a 1m:51.588 to be thirteenth right behind his team-mate. Felipe's lap looked very difficult with the car running wide on several occasions. Felipe had dropped to sixteenth and would pit. After a long stop completing some changes in his setup Felipe would return running on a set of used soft tyres. Felipe would continue his option tyre run as the session ended.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would be first out onto the track, running on the medium tyre. Valtteri would complete a flying lap setting a 1m:52.608 to be second behind Vettel. Valtteri would drop to seventh and would pit after having run wide off the track. But he would return quickly and after a few laps would again pit having completed six laps. Back in his pit there would be a lot of work on the rear wing of the FW37 with both rear wing side plates off the car. With the work completed Valtteri was back out but was not able to improve and would pit. His next run would see Valtteri come out on the soft tyre and was able to improve with a 1m:51.250 to be eleventh. But this time was 1.8 seconds off the quickest time, a very big margin. Valtteri would pit having dropped to twelfth. Valtteri would come back out currently fourteenth on what was a longer run on the option tyre. Valtteri was setting times in the mid 1m:55s through to low 1m:56s. Like Felipe Valtteri would complete the session on the option tyre.

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Gap      Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m49.385s 19
2  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m49.687s 23
3  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1m50.136s 15
4  Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-Renault	1m50.399s 18
5  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m50.461s 23
6  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1m50.461s 21
7  Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		1m50.489s 21
8  Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1m50.709s 18
9  Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1m50.928s 24
10 Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m50.940s 23
11 Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1m50.971s 21
12 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Renault	1m51.037s 24
13 Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1m51.117s 25
14 Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1m51.250s 25
15 Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes		1m51.317s 16
16 Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1m51.588s 26
17 Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1m51.854s 16
18 Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1m52.570s 14
19 Will Stevens		Marussia-Ferrari	1m54.065s 17
20 Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	1m54.253s 14