(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team duo of Nico Rosberg and
Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets in an eventful Free Practice 2 session at
the Sakhir circuit ahead of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Rosberg’s fastest time
was a 1m 34.647s as the German completed 31 laps under the lights. Speaking following
today’s running, Rosberg stated:
‘It was a good was a
good day today. The afternoon session wasn’t very useful as the conditions are
so hot and really quite different to what we see in the evening – which is of
course when qualifying and the race will be held. That makes the second session
very valuable and we learned a lot – For example that Ferrari are very good on
the long runs. On qualifying laps we look quicker but on race pace they are
really strong so we will have to do a lot of work tonight to find the perfect
setup. Tyre wise it’s all been very straightforward. Both compounds are robust –
it’s just their absolute pace that should be a factor. Qualifying will be
important as we saw in the last few races. But I’m feeling good about my pace
on one lap and the long runs too so confidence is high.’
Lewis Hamilton completed 33 laps with the reigning world
champion setting a fastest time of 1m 34.762s. Following today’s running the
double world champion stated:
‘We’ve had a good day
in terms of getting the long runs in and understanding the tyres. Working on
race runs was the priority – although we did also show strong single lap pace.
On my fastest lap I locked up in Turn 8 so lost out a bit there and there’s a
few areas I need to work on to find a bit more time. It’s difficult to say how
long each compound will go but the Option feels great. From what I can see it
shouldn’t be as tough as it was in Malaysia from the tyre prospective and we’re
definitely in a better position this weekend than at the same stage in Sepang.
Despite that, I’m sure it will still be very close with Ferrari, who look very
good on the long runs. Generally though, it’s been a positive start.’
Mercedes Executive Director (Business) Toto Wolff stated:
‘We did a lot of laps
today, got through out planned work and did a number of important experiments,
especially during FP1. The track conditions between FP1 and FP2 were very
different, with only the second session really relevant for Qualifying and the
Race, and you need to understand properly how big change in track temperatures
affects the cars. We saw some very strong long runs from a number of teams
today during FP2? And Ferrari looked the quickest car during the session, with
some very stable and quick lap times. So our boys are at the top of the time sheets,
yes but we have a lot of work to do tonight to analyse and understand the data.
But like always, this is only Friday and it’s Sunday that counts.’
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe stated:
‘The afternoon started
with a power failure in the garage that disrupted our programme slightly. But
after that we cracked on with long run analysis on the prime tyre. The hot
conditions meant it was not the ideal scenario for setup work but we managed to
gather some very useful data. In Practice Two we ran our normal programme in a
trouble-free session. Our pace looks very close with Ferrari so, as usual, we
will have plenty of work to do tonight to ensure we are optimised for
qualifying and the race.’
Scuderia Ferrari continued to show that they are strong
contenders this season, after topping the time sheets this morning, Kimi
Raikkonen ended Free Practice 2 in third place with a fastest time of 1m
35.174s. The Finn completed 30 laps of the Sakhir circuit. The Iceman commented
on his day of running saying:
‘I still haven’t had a
look at the lap times of the session, but I think we are not as good as we want
to be. In the second session it was a bit tricky with the set-up, we had some
problems with the handling and we struggled in a few places. This evening we’ll
analyse all the data in order to improve and do a better job tomorrow. Having a
clear qualifying makes life easier in the race. I don’t know if we can
challenge Mercedes, tomorrow is another day, conditions can change and this
plays a big part, so let’s wait and see.”
Sebastian Vettel endured a difficult day in Bahrain, the
four time world champion suffered a technical issue with his SF15-T this
morning meaning that he missed most of the session. When he got back on track,
the German finished in second place behind team mate Kimi Raikkonen. In the
second the session, Vettel was involved in a collision with the Sahara Force
India Formula One Team’s Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez. The German ended the second
session in fourth place with a fastest time of 1m 35.277s completing 26 laps.
Speaking at the end of the day, Vettel commented saying:
‘I came out of the garage
and had a problem. I hit the brakes but suddenly there was a blow and I
couldn’t brake properly. Therefore I hit Sergio Perez in the corner. Of course
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t do anything else in that moment. I was looking for
Sergio to say sorry, but he was still sitting in the car. My fast lap was not
perfect, but everything in the car feels good. Of course tonight it was quite
different from this afternoon, as it was much colder. It’s hard to say if we
got closer to Mercedes, everybody seemed to be closer to them but I’m sure they
didn’t show everything today.’
The Williams Martini Racing Team’s Valtteri Bottas ended the
day in fifth place for the Grove based outfit. The Finn completed 36 laps, the
most of any driver in the second practice session. The Finn’s fastest time was
1m 35.280s. Speaking following the session, Bottas stated:
‘It has been a good Friday. The car feels
good but it’s only Friday so it is hard to compare us against our competitors.
We are still focusing on tyre performance in a race situation and have made
progress, especially with the option tyre, although I think there is a bit more
performance to find. We look quite strong for qualifying, but the race pace is
important and we need to work hard tonight on this area.’
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Team’s Daniel Ricciardo was 6th
fastest for the Milton Keynes based outfit. The Australian completed 27 laps
with his fastest time being a 1m 35.449s compared with a 1m 35.455s in the
opening session this morning. Speaking following his day, Ricciardo stated:
‘I had an alright session, I think we’re looking
pretty good. We’re more or less where we expect to be. We’re a little bit more
competitive in cooler conditions so the night session should be good. The tyre
degradation is quite high here, it will probably be a two stop race, but we’ll
see. It’s going to be windy tomorrow so we might have some sand on the track.’
The Lotus F1 Team’s Pastor Maldonado was seventh fastest in
the E23 Hybrid. The Venezuelan completed 57 laps over the course of the day and
set a fastest time of 1m 35.474s. Speaking following Friday’s running,
Maldonado stated:
‘I was very happy with the car in the hot
conditions of the first session and also in the cooler, later session too. This
is very positive as we didn’t have to spend too much time working on refining
the set-up for the different track temperature but could work on our usual tyre
evaluations. The track condition was good, even at the start of FP1 so we were
able to have a productive day. I think we have good potential here this weekend.’
Felipe Nasr was eighth fastest for the Sauber F1 Team
setting a fastest time of 1m 35.793s completing 27 laps. The Brazilian finished
the day just ahead of Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat. The Russian
completed 23 laps with a fastest time of 1m 35.883s. Speaking following his
day, Kvyat stated:
‘It was a normal long run for me and we managed
to get some good laps in. Tyre degradation was as expected but we were
disrupted by the red flag. There is some wind expected for tomorrow and we’ll
see how that affects the car behaviour. It was a good Friday for us overall.’
Williams Martini Racing Team’s Felipe Massa rounded out the
top ten with a fastest time of 1m 35.884s just 1,000th of a second
behind Kvyat. The Brazilian completed 35 laps. Speaking following Friday’s
action, Massa stated:
‘I struggled with the balance of the car
today but the team have shown there is good pace. We need to work hard tonight
and make the right changes to get the car balance right, and then show the pace
that Valtteri has shown today. We have also been working on tyre performance
and have certainly made steps in the right direction.’
Williams Martini Racing Team’s Head of Performance
Engineering Rob Smedley stated:
‘It has been a really good day for the team. We had a lot of work
to get done over the last couple of days and have hit every target that we set
ourselves. There is an awful lot of data that we collected with regards to
specification and management of tyres. We are where we expect to be on a Friday
with regards to both high and low fuel runs, which is encouraging for qualifying
and the race. The team has worked very well and to get through the arduous
programme we had set was impressive. We used the conditions to our advantage
and gathered data during FP1 as the track temperatures were hotter than we will
experience in the race. We used this data and then focused on tyre and car
performance in FP2.’
The Sauber F1 Team’s Marcus Ericsson was eleventh fastest,
setting a fastest time of 1m 36.148s. The Swedish driver completed 34 laps of
the Sakhir circuit and ended the day just ahead of McLaren Honda’s Fernando
Alonso who completed 22 laps with a fastest time of 1m 36.191s.
The Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean was 13th with
a fastest time of 1m 36.334s completing 31 laps. Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos
Sainz finished the day in 14th place for the Italian with a fastest
time of 1m 36.471s. The Spaniard completed 32 laps and ended the day just ahead
of the Sahara Force India Formula One Team’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Hulkenberg completed 30 laps with a fastest time of 1m
36.805s. Speaking following the conclusion of the track action the German
stated:
‘It was quite a straightforward Friday. This
morning we did a few aero tests to continue our process of understanding the
car and learning about it, exploring different ways to optimise our
performance. Our mileage was good, so we should have plenty of data to analyse
tonight. The afternoon session went quite smoothly as well: we were able to use
both tyre compounds and completed short and long runs. We got all we needed from
the session, so that we could skip the final run and save a bit of engine life.
We have a fairly clear idea of where we stand and of our performance level, so
tonight it will be a matter of tweaking our set-up to improve the balance and
be more competitive tomorrow.’
Max Verstappen who finished the opening session this morning
in 6th place ended the day in 16th place completing 26
laps with a fastest time of 1m 36.917s. Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez ended his day in
17th place for the Sahara Force India Formula One Team after he was
involved in a collision with Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Perez completed 33 laps with a fastest time of 1m 37.062s.
Speaking following the day of running the Mexican stated:
‘It's been a good day for us, despite the final
incident with Vettel. I was trying to overtake Nasr and, when I got to the apex
of turn one, the gap I had on Sebastian was gone, as he had a car problem, and
he made light contact with my right rear. After the session he came to see me
and said he had an issue with the brakes. It was an unfortunate incident but
nothing more than that. Before that moment, we had done a good job throughout
the sessions and I feel we have made another step forward. We tried some
different set-up options and we had the opportunity to make some big changes
between the two sessions. We seem to be a bit more competitive compared to the
previous couple of races, especially over the longer runs, but it’s too early
to make any predictions.’
Sahara Force India Deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley
stated:
‘We split an extensive aero test programme between
both cars in FP1, gathering lots of data to help us with the correlation of the
car. This evening the focus moved towards the long run performance: trying
different set-ups between the two cars to give us the information needed to
ensure we have the best possible race car come Sunday. We now turn our
attention to extracting more qualifying potential from the car and we have
plenty of good data to analyse tonight.’
The Manor F1 Team’s Will Stevens completed 21 laps with a
fastest time of 1m 39.131s and ended the day just ahead of Jenson Button’s
McLaren Honda. The 2009 world champion suffered more technical issues following
his problems this morning and completed just 15 laps with a fastest time of 1m
39.209s. Roberto Merhi rounded out the times in the second Manor with a time of
1m 40.592s. The Spaniard completed 26 laps.
© Ben Johnston 2015
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