Abu Dhabi – Friday Practice Sessions: 6th
Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com | twitter
A much cooler second session at the Yas Marina circuit saw Kimi and Romain rack up the laps to take P6 / P5 respectively, with soft tyre pace looking particularly encouraging as the team prepares for the challenge of qualifying tomorrow afternoon.
Summary
- With the evening beginning to draw in, track temperature had dropped 13 degrees by the start of the session compared with the end of FP1
- Both the white marked medium and yellow marked soft compound Pirelli tyres were used by each E20 over the course of proceedings
- Solid pace on the medium and very encouraging times on the softs saw both drivers competing at the front of the pack
- A variety of long and short runs were conducted by the pair as upgrade analysis and race simulations took priority
- Both Kimi and Romain gave positive feedback on their respective setups; a positive start to the weekend
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Position: P6
Fastest Lap: 1:42.532
Laps Completed: 28
Key Moments:
02mins: Out on fresh medium tyres for a quick first stint; goes P2
20mins: Second run on scrubbed mediums
43mins: Third outing of the day; used medium rubber once again
69mins: Inaugural showing on softs; climbs to P6 with first attempt
83mins: Final showing on scrubbed softs; dicing at the sharp end of the standings
90mins: Chequered flag; P6 for the Finn
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m41.751 33 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m41.919s + 0.168 33 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m42.412s + 0.661 35 4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m42.466s + 0.715 21 5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m42.500s + 0.749 33 6. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m42.532s + 0.781 27 7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m42.587s + 0.836 30 8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m42.823s + 1.072 32 9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m42.998s + 1.247 36 10. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m43.106s + 1.355 35 11. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m43.191s + 1.440 33 12. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m43.200s + 1.449 35 13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m43.255s + 1.504 33 14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m43.267s + 1.516 31 15. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m43.578s + 1.827 33 16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m43.689s + 1.938 31 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m44.260s + 2.509 26 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m45.073s + 3.322 18 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m45.245s + 3.494 35 20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m45.782s + 4.031 32 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m46.589s + 4.838 34 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m46.671s + 4.920 30 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m46.707s + 4.956 25 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m47.406s + 5.655 34
Lashings of flo-vis paint and a session of power recovery formed the order of the morning for Romain and Kimi respectively, as the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend kicked off in relatively low-key fashion under the searing sun of the Yas Marina.
Summary
- Searing heat, clear skies and rising track temperatures forming ideal conditions to begin the weekend
- The white marked medium compound Pirelli tyre was used exclusively by both drivers throughout proceedings
- Kimi ran an updated version of the Coandă exhaust system
- Romain’s E20 featured new chassis wing upgrades in addition to front end amendments
- Both drivers completed relatively short stints as the team sought feedback and data on the new upgrades
- Kimi suffered a puncture towards the end of the morning, forcing an early end to his session
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Position: P10
Fastest Lap: 1:45.422
Laps Completed: 15
Key Moments:
01mins: First car out on track; medium tyres for an install lap
35mins: Short initial run on used mediums; analysis of new exhaust layout on the agenda
56mins: Scrubbed medium rubber again for another evaluation run
85mins: Session over; right rear puncture requiring assessment ends the morning early
90mins: Chequered flag; P10 for the Finn
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m43.285 20 2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m43.618s + 0.333 18 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m44.050s + 0.765 21 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m44.366s + 1.081 20 5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m44.542s + 1.257 21 6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m44.694s + 1.409 21 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m45.194s + 1.909 19 8. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m45.347s + 2.062 24 9. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m45.347s + 2.062 23 10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m45.422s + 2.137 15 11. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m45.567s + 2.282 23 12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m45.587s + 2.302 18 13. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m45.722s + 2.437 19 14. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m45.743s + 2.458 19 15. Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 1m45.769s + 2.484 21 16. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m45.811s + 2.526 21 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m46.649s + 3.364 22 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m46.708s + 3.423 24 19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m47.418s + 4.133 22 20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m47.891s + 4.606 19 21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m48.354s + 5.069 21 22. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m48.887s + 5.602 21 23. Ma Qing Hua HRT-Cosworth 1m50.487s + 7.202 20 24. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault no time 3
Kim Raikkonen – 10th/6th: “We were good on Friday in India and we’ve been strong again here in Abu Dhabi today. We tried a few new parts on the car in both sessions and we have some things to go through before tomorrow. Our lap times seem to be pretty okay so far; hopefully we can find a little bit more pace for tomorrow in practice and then again for the qualifying session.”
“We tried the new exhausts and didn’t really change the car a lot apart from those parts, and it didn’t feel very nice. But the laptime seems pretty OK still. I am a bit surprised how good the time was when it wasn’t very nice to drive.
“It is usually a bit compromised here and there, but last race we had a very nice car until we changed the set-up and it was not exactly like we wanted. But if we have a similar feeling with the car it should be good.”
“The tyres were OK, but I think the car overall was not maybe as good as we wanted and it always makes it a bit more tricky then. But I think the tyres seem to be fine so far – they were working fine and we didn’t see any issues. We didn’t have time to do a long run, we just wanted to make sure that we could compare [tyres].” [source]
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re quite happy with where we are today. We spent the morning on medium tyres, setting up and balancing the cars. Both were reasonable, with the drivers relatively happy. We ran an exhaust update with Kimi in FP1 and went back to the standard setup for the start of the second session. We then did another back to back analysis, so whereas we would normally have done a much longer high fuel run we spent FP2 evaluating this to gain good data and give us a clear picture on where we need to be tomorrow.”
Great Job Kimi !!! You deserved to have the P1 after all you have done …
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November 5, 2012 at 11:48 am