(Williams Martini Racing Team)
Susie Wolff was in action for the Williams Martini Racing Team during this mornings opening practice session ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring. The Scot was driving in place of Valtteri Bottas and completed 22 laps and set a time of 1m 20.769s which was good enough to finish the session in 15th place just two tenths of a second behind Felipe Massa. Speaking following the session Wolff said:
'The car felt really good today and so I was able to get a good number of laps in. I was able to improve lap on lap and make use of the new set of tyres on the car. I was well prepared and the guys have done a good job for us all to be ready. I knew today was going to be our day and so when we had issues early on I stayed calm and got the car back to the garage. I will be continuing my work in the simulator for the remainder of the season, but I will be looking for the next opportunity to get behind the wheel as I really want to do more.'
Wolff is not due to drive the car again this season but it is believed that due to her performance today she may very well get another outing in the car during a race weekend before the end of the season. In the first practice session Felipe Massa set the 11th fastest time in the FW36 as the Grove based outfit worked on Aero evaluation work along with set-up and tyre work. In the second session, the Brazilian finished in 6th place.
Speaking following today's running Massa said:
'We have had a good day today. We have done a lot of work on the set-up especially after the suspension changes we have had to make. I hope we can carry on the improvements throughout the weekend. We made a good step-up between the first and second sessions which is good. We will have to be cautious about the rain on Sunday and we will be thinking ahead with a view to prepare the car for that. '
Valtteri Bottas was in action during this afternoons second session and said:
'The track was very hot today which affected the tyres a lot. It wasn't easy on the super-soft on the long runs and that's a point we have highlighted needs more work. It has been interesting to work on the mechanical changes we have made in the suspension, and that has given a lot of data to analyse. We still have room for improvement and will work hard to make sure that improvement happens. '
Williams Martini Racing's Head of Performance Engineering Rob Smedley was happy with how the teams Friday went and said:
'We are no longer running our interconnected suspension, so one of the main focuses of today was to optimise the car as much as possible around this, as all teams will have had to do. Susie was driving this morning and did a really good job, worked well and drove sensibly. The feedback we got helped us get used to the car without our interconnected suspension which was valuable.
Valtteri and Felipe focused more on tyre work during FP2. We have some work to do with tyre conditioning for the first timed lap, but we are certainly not far from getting that right. The set-up and tyre work has helped long run pace a lot. The team have had a tough day as they have been awake since 3am due to a fire in our hotel last night, so well done to them for not letting it affect the work they had to do. It once again shows the true spirit of the team to have both cars working well to complete our planned programmes today.'
Felipe Massa said earlier this week that the teams goal for this season has now changed and they are aiming to be the best of the rest behind Mercedes after a great start to the 2014 season. The German Grand Prix this weekend officially marks the mid-way point in the 2014 Formula One season and Felipe Massa has said that he would like the team to be in a position to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari in the second half of the season.
Williams Martini Racing are currently in fourth place in the Constructors championship on 103 points just three behind Ferrari who are in third place.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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