Japanese GP: Williams Martini 4th & 5th in FP3

Team Summary:
After two wet session son Friday Saturday would be a very busy morning session for the Williams Martini team. It was a dry day as the first cars took to the track. The first time was a 1m:36.392 from Ricciardo. After their early runs Valtteri and Felipe were second and fifth. Ricciardo would improve with a 1m:36.010 and he would pit to take on the medium tyre. After their second runs Felipe and Valtteri were fifth and sixth. On the medium tyre Ricciardo would set a 1m:34.755. Both Williams drivers were on a long run on the hard tyre with Felipe pitting with forty minutes remaining. Valtteri would also come in. More drivers were starting to come out on the medium tyre.

Ricciardo was still fastest followed by Verstappen and Sainz, with all three on the medium tyre. Button was fourth also on the option tyre. Ricciardo would lower his quickest time with a 1m:34.497 with Valtteri now second. The Williams cars were fastest in the speed trap as Felipe moved into second ahead of his team-mate. All of the top ten times were now on the medium tyre. There were a range of setup schedules being run with the Merced pair yet to come out on the medium tyre. Rosberg would come out and would quickly move to the top of the times with a 1m:33.995 seeing Felipe and Valtteri drop to third and fourth.

Twenty minutes remaining in the session and both Williams drivers continued on a longer run on the medium tyre. Hamilton would join Rosberg at the front going second with a 1m:34.292. Having completed ten and eleven laps on the medium tyre Felipe and Valtteri would pit. with fourteen minutes left in the session. Both Williams drivers were back out running on new option tyres with six minutes left in the session. Valtteri was now fourth and Felipe fifth with Felipe's lap looking quite messy. With the end of the session the top drivers were Rosberg followed by Hamilton, Ricciardo, Valtteri, Felipe, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Vettel, and in ten Grosjean.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would follow his team-mate out also on the hard tyre. Felipe would complete his first time lap with a 1m:37.794 to be third. He would drop to fifth as he pitted. Felipe would say to his team "I've got a problem - the headrest is coming off around my head." This would explain his stop. After a quick fix Felipe would return to the track. Felipe would set a personal best in sector one and would finish his lap with a 1m:37.232 to be fifth. He would continue to improve to now be third with a 1m:36.916. Felipe would drop to fifth with fifteen minutes of the session completed.

Felipe would be first to pit and after a short break would come back out on the medium tyre. He would set a 1m:34.934 to be second. He would drop to third as he continued to put laps in on the option tyre. This would become fourth as he continued to run setting times in the high 1m:34s. Felipe would also come back out on a new set of medium tyres. He would not improve finishing the session in fifth.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would be first out for Williams running on the hard tyre. Valtteri's first time was a slow 1m:43.764 to be currently sixth. Valtteri would jump up to second with a 1m:36.926. He would fall to third behind Verstappen. Valtteri would also continue on his longer run but he would follow his team-mate into the pits. Valtteri would be first to return to the track this time on the medium tyre. Valtteri was on a quick lap and would set a 1m:35.128 to be second. He would drop to third behind his team-mate. With other times this would become fifth, as he continued to put further laps into the medium tyre. He was setting times in the low 1m:35s. Valtteri was now back out on a new set of option medium tyres. A 1m:34.797 from Valtteri would see him move ahead of his team-mate to be fourth.

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1’33.995 19
2  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1’34.292 20 
3  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’34.497 22
4  Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1’34.797 27
5  Felipe Massa		Williams-Mercedes	1’34.934 25
6  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1’35.082 16
7  Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’35.160 26
8  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1’35.222 16
9  Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		1’35.602 20
10 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso-Renault	1’35.963 29
11 Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’36.110 19
12 Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		1’36.174 15
13 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1’36.199 19
14 Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull-Renault	1’36.294 23
15 Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes		1’36.307 21
16 Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		1’36.360 18
17 Sergio Perez		Force India-Mercedes	1’36.430 21
18 Felipe Nasr		Sauber-Ferrari		1’36.919 24
19 Will Stevens		Manor-Ferrari		1’39.653 24
20 Alexander Rossi	Manor-Ferrari		1’39.819 22