German GP: Williams Martini continues with updates in FP2


By Andrew Hooper
July 21 2018

The second Friday prcatice session for the 2018 German GP would again see the Williams Martini team work through their evaluations of the updates that have been brought to this weekend, in particular the new front wing. Both drivers would also work on tyres evaluations with the pair Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin using the ultrasoft and then splitting the runs on the medium and soft tyres. Given the nature of what the team was working through in this session it was not surprising to see them down the times in 18th and 19th with Lance leading Sergey.

 
 Williams Martini German GP Friday 2nd Practice
 
Stroll
 

Team Summary:
With the first runs completed Vettel was quickest with a 1m:14.700 using the medium tyre. After their first runs the Williams drivers were in 12th and 13th. Vettel would improve with a 1m:13.817 followed by Magnussen and Perez. Raikkonen would move up to second while the Williams pair were now 14th and 15th. Verstappen would move up to third but he would go quickest with a 1m:13.356 using the soft tyre. Bottas would move into second and Hamilton third. The only difference was that Hamilton was on the medium tyre. The Williams pair had dropped down to 17th and 18th. Vettel would use the ultrasoft tyre to set a 1m:13.310 to be quickest from Verstappen, Bottas, and Hamilton. Both Mercedes cars would come back out on ultrasoft tyres and they would see Hamilton and Bottas going first and second. Hamilton's time was a 1m:13.111. Quickly Verstappen would return to the top of the times with a 1m:13.085.

Vettel and Raikkonen were now fourth and fifth followed by Grosjean, Magnussen, Leclerc, Sainz, and Ricciardo tenth. The Williams drivers were now 18th and 19th as the team continued to work on their updates. With thirty minutes of the session remaining teams were now working on longer runs. Verstappen would have noises coming from his engine and would be forced to pit. With the session coming to a close the order was Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Magnussen, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, and Ocon tenth. With the final minutes commencing Verstappen would be able to return for a quick run. The session would end with no change to the order with the Williams team drivers remaining in 18th and 19th. Based on this it does not seem like the team is making any real improvement.

Lance Stroll:
Lance would commence his first run on the used medium tyre. He would set a 1m:16.846 to be 12th after other drivers completed runs. He would improve with a 1m:16.166 to be only 12th. Lance would pit after a short run allowing the team to assess the front wing which was covered with flow-viz. Lance would drop to 19th as he remained in his garage. Lance would finally return with forty five minutes remaining using new ultrasoft tyres. Lance would move ahead of his team-mate with a 1m:15.269 to be 15th. He would drop to 16th as he continued to lap. He would pit after a six lap run. After a lengthy stop Lance would return also on used ultrasoft tyres. Lance would pit with fifteen laps remaining. Lance would also return coming back out on medium tyres for his final run. He would complete the session having run twenty three laps on the medium tyre.

Sergey Sirotkin:
Sergey would come out for his first run using the soft tyre. A 1m:19.438 would see Sergey down in 13th. A 1m:16.479 from Sergey would see him only 13th. Sergey would pit currently 17th having completed thirteen laps on the soft tyres. With just under an hour remaining Sergey was back out this time on the ultrasoft tyre and would set a 1m:15.408 to be 14th. Sergey was also running flow-viz on his car but his was on the bargeboards. Sergey would pit after a seven lap run currently 15th. He would drop to 16th behind his team-mate. Sergey was now 17th with forty minutes remaining. Sergey would return on used ultrasoft tyres on what was a longer run. Sergey would lock his inside front and would go off the track and into the gravel but he was able to continue. Sergey would pit returning on used soft tyres. Sergey would pit with the end of the session having completed twenty eight laps on the soft tyre.

 
Sirotkin
 
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m13.085s - 18
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.111s 0.026s 39
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m13.190s 0.105s 39
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m13.310s 0.225s 46
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m13.427s 0.342s 41
6 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1m13.973s 0.888s 34
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1m14.189s 1.104s 36
8 Charles Leclerc Sauber-Ferrari 1m14.374s 1.289s 41
9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m14.496s 1.411s 31
10 Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1m14.508s 1.423s 39
11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m14.552s 1.467s 38
12 Carlos Sainz Renault 1m14.592s 1.507s 43
13 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m14.682s 1.597s 36
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m14.783s 1.698s 38
15 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Honda 1m14.793s 1.708s 44
16 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso-Honda 1m14.830s 1.745s 45
17 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Renault 1m14.836s 1.751s 38
18 Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1m15.269s 2.184s 36
19 Sergey Sirotkin Williams-Mercedes 1m15.408s 2.323s 41
20 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Renault 1m15.454s 2.369s 34
 
Stroll
 

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