Chinese GP: Difficult start for Williams Martini in FP1

Team Summary:
Both Williams drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, would complete their installation laps. Both drivers were on the soft tyre and Rosberg set the first quick time with a 1m:39.012 but Hamilton would set a 1m:38.802. Both were on the medium tyre. For Williams Valtteri and Felipe had selected different tyre allocations with Felipe taking one extra soft tyre and one less medium tyre than Valtteri. Early in the session Felipe would have a spin as a result of some failure in relation to his left rear tyre. Felipe was able to get his car back to the pit.

With debris on the circuit the session would be red flagged. The session would restart with Valtteri returning quickly. Vettel was third on the soft tyre followed by Button and Hulkenberg. The track would go quite as the drivers came in to return their Pirelli tyres after the first forty minutes. Felipe would return but would again suffer a further puncture seeing his having to crawl back to his pit again. But Magnussen would also have a left rear failure wrecking the left rear corner of his car. The session would again be red flagged with debris on the track. There was a lot of activity in the Williams pit as they worked to repair Felipe's car as well as determining the exact nature of the problem. Pat Symonds would tell the media that they felt it was a wheel rim failure.

The Williams team was seen fitting a rear wheel on Felipe's car to check how it fitted. The session would restart with seven minutes remaining. Felipe and Valtteri would remain in their pits as the Williams team continued to check their cars. The Williams team would announce that neither car would come back out for the final minutes of the session. Rosberg would go quickest with a 1m:38.037, followed by Hamilton and Vettel. The session would end with Valtteri in thirteenth and Felipe last on the time sheets.

Felipe Massa:
Felipe would follow Valtteri out and would pit after a one lap. After a short break Felipe would return but he would come to a stop coming on the radio saying that something had broken on his car. This occurred as he went through Turn six. Replays showed that his left rear tyre had come off the rim causing the spin. Felipe was able to slowly complete his lap returning to his pit. The team would start the process of trying to determine the cause of the failure. Pirelli would report that there was no signs of a puncture on the tyre that caused Felipe and issue.

With just over thirty five minutes left in the session Felipe was able to get back out but again he would suffer a left rear tyre puncture. Felipe would crawl back to his pit and again the team would get to work addressing the issue. It was looking like it was an issue with the rear floor but Pat Symonds would say that the Williams team felt it was a double wheel rim failure.

Felipe would tell media that after the first puncture the team would check the car and could not find anything so they sent him back out again. With all his issues Felipe had yet to set a time.

Valtteri Bottas:
Valtteri would be first out for his installation lap. He would complete one lap and pit. Valtteri would peak to the media saying that he was hoping for a trouble free weekend. Valtteri was also back out on the track. Valtteri had set a 1m:47.339 but had to abort his first quick lap as a result of the red flag. Back out Valtteri would set a 1m:40.828 to be ninth, continuing to run on the soft tyre. He would pit having completed seven laps. He would come back out completing two laps again on the soft tyre prior to the red flag. The Williams team would also check the rear of Valtteri's car as the team tried to get to the bottom of what the issue was.

Pos  Driver         	Team		        Time     Laps
1  Nico Rosberg		Mercedes		1m38.037s  16
2  Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1m38.183s  16
3  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			1m38.665s  12
4  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/TAG Heuer	1m39.061s  13
5  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari			1m39.155s  11
6  Daniil Kvyat		Red Bull/TAG Heuer	1m39.625s  14
7  Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m39.676s  12
8  Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda		1m39.974s  11
9  Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m40.169s  13
10 Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m40.232s  13
11 Sergio Perez		Force India/Mercedes	1m40.347s  15
12 Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda		1m40.538s  11
13 Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m40.828s  10
14 Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari		1m41.358s  9
15 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari		1m41.393s  18
16 Rio Haryanto		Manor/Mercedes		1m41.614s  20
17 Jolyon Palmer	Renault			1m41.816s  16
18 Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes		1m42.908s  14
19 Felipe Nasr		Sauber/Ferrari		1m42.980s  8
20 Kevin Magnussen	Renault			-	   6
21 Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari		-	   2
22 Felipe Massa		Williams/Mercedes	-	   4