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Team Summary:
Both Williams drivers would start the second Friday practice session at Spa
running on the soft tyre. They would be first and second after their first
timed laps but Raikkonen would go ahead with a 1m:49.926 also on the soft
tyre. Ricciardo was now second with Valtteri and Felipe now third and
fourth. Verstappen was now fourth followed by Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Perez,
Vettel, and Felipe. Of the top ten Rosberg was the only one on the medium
tyre. Raikkonen had improved with a 1m:49.815 while Hamilton would set a
quick time on the soft tyre to be quickest with a 1m:49.782. The track would
empty with twenty minutes of the session completed.
There would be a Virtual Safety car period as a result of an issue with the
Renault of Palmer who had stopped out on the track. With the restart
Raikkonen would move into second with a 1m;49.815 running on the supersoft
tyre. Butt his would become third as Ricciardo went quickest with a
1m:49.133. Verstappen would go second but Perez would go quickest with a
1m:49.100 but he was on the supersoft tyre. Rosberg would move into third
but was on the soft tyre. With fifty five minutes remaining Valtteri and
Felipe were eighth and tenth in the times. Hulkenberg would go quickest with
a 1m:48.657 seeing Perez now second followed by Ricciardo, Rosberg,
Verstappen, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Valtteri, and Ocon. But more drivers were
now running on the supersoft tyre with Kvyat moving up to eighth.
On the supersoft tyre Vettel would go second with a 1m:49.023 with Button
tenth and Valtteri eleventh. Hamilton was currently eighth but out on the
medium tyre doing a longer run. Magnussen would move up to eleventh also on
the supersoft tyre. Wehrlein would move up to eighth also on the supersoft
tyre as Ricciardo also started a quick lap on this tyre and would finish
with a 1m:48.341 to be quickest. With just under forty minutes remaining
Verstappen would go quickest with a 1m:48.085. Of the top ten only Rosberg
in sixth had yet to use the supersoft tyre. Both Williams drivers would drop
well down the order being sixteenth and seventeenth with thirty minutes
remaining with both cars in the pits. With twenty minutes remaining the
order was Verstappen, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Vettel, Perez, Rosberg,
Raikkonen, Grosjean, Button, and Gutierrez. There was a large variety in
what the teams were running with all three types of tyres being used. As the
session drew to a close both Williams drivers were competing longer runs on
the soft tyre but both drivers were a long way down the field. With the end
of the session they would remain in sixteenth and seventeenth, a
disappointing result.
Valtteri Bottas:
With the start of the second Friday practice session Valtteri would take to
the track running on the soft tyres. Valtteri would set a 1m:50.412 to be
quickest with five minutes of the session run. Valtteri would pit after just
three laps coming for some setup changes. Valtteri would drop to third
behind Ricciardo. Images would show Valtteri out of his car with his
mechanics working around his car, in what looked like a problem with his
car. Valtteri had dropped to fourth with his car still its garage. He would
quickly drop to tenth as other drivers set times on the supersoft tyre. This
would become eighteenth as he still sat in his pit waiting for his car
issues to be resolved. It was reported that Valtteri's issue was with an ECU
failure. Valtteri would finally get back out running on new prototype soft
tyres. He would fail to improve from nineteenth after his first lap but his
next was a 1m:50.151 to be only sixteenth. Now it was Valtteri's turn to run
on the supersoft tyre following Felipe back out. He would again pit still
sixteenth. With fifteen minutes remaining Valtteri would return returning to
the soft tyre.
Felipe Massa:
Felipe would again follow his team-mate out with the start of the session
also on the soft tyres. Felipe would pit after one lap but would head
straight back out. Felipe would go second with a time of 1m:51.313 to be
behind Valtteri. Felipe would drop to ninth as others went quicker. Felipe
would pit after six laps joining his team-mate. Felipe would return to the
track again on the soft tyre but would pit after five laps. Felipe would
drop to fifteenth as more drivers set supersoft tyres. Felipe would join
those on the supersoft tyres coming back out but would only manage a
1m:50.147 to be fourteenth. This would become fifteenth as Felipe pitted
having completed just three laps. He would drop down to sixteenth and then
seventeenth to be behind his team-mate. Felipe would return to the track
running on used supersoft tyres. Felipe would continue to run on the
supersoft tyre but he would pit completing a pitstop returning on used soft
tyres. |
