Tag: free practice

F1 2014:Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Fastest at Silverstone

Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets at the end of the First Free Practice session for the 2014 British GP.

The second of the Mercedes Lewis Hamilton ended second fastest time but remained seven and a half tenths off Rosberg’s pace. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso clocked the fourth fastest time ahead Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

All eyes were on Williams development driver Susie Wolff as she became the first woman in twenty-two years to take part in an official Formula 1 session. An initial flying lap in the mid 44s would be the only lap that the Scot would register as an oil pressure and engine issue brought her run to a premature end.

Despite the disappointment Wolff cherished the opportunity to get out on track and gracefully accepted that sometimes motorsport is a tad unfair. Wolff will be out for Williams again at Hockenheim in preparation for the German grand prix.

The misery continued for the Grove based team when Felipe Massa destroyed his Williams after dipping a wheel on to the artificial turf. The car sustained severe damage to all four corners and will have to undergo significant repair work. Massa celebrates his 200th F1 race this weekend.

July 4, 2014
Friday Practice To Be Revamped

The current format of the Formula 1 weekend is set to be overhauled for the 2015 season.

The proposed changes will mainly affect Friday running. An agreement has been reached amongst the team to scrap the two 90 minute practice sessions in favour of a single 90 minute session to be run later on a Friday afternoon. The biggest motivating factor behind the proposed change in believed to be a cost-cutting measure.

Several other changes have also been approved by the team among which is call to ban in-season testing, and stricter rules for fitting last minute upgrades to cars.

Despite the fact that the teams have signed off on the Friday practice session revamp the proposal still has to be given the green light by the Formula 1 Commission and the FIA World Motorsport Council. The proposal will be considered later this month.

June 6, 2014
F1 2014: Free Practice 3 – Hamilton Leads the Way In Monaco

The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton ended the third and final practice for the Monaco grand prix fastest.

Teams are drivers were left with a lot of work to do on Saturday morning as they played catch-up after Thursday’s washed out second free practice session. The Mercedes pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg traded fastest times throughout the session.

However, it was Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who sprung the biggest surprise. The Australian set a laptime of 1:16.808 on his SuperSoft tyre run to split the two Silver Arrrows. Most signficantly, Ricciardo set his fastest time amidst a relatively long run. Teammate Sebastian Vettel, caught up in traffic during his attempt on the SuperSoft rubber, was fourth fastest.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen ended the hour long session in fifth and sixth respectively. The Ferrari however does not look like matching the pace of the front-running teams around the streets of Monte Carlo. BBC commentator and three-time Le Mans winner Alan McNish reckons that the Ferrari looks more like a “bucking bronco than a prancing horse.”

While SuperSoft tyre was the obvious choice for the qualifying simulation runs; it was significant to note that the Pirelli tyres took up to three laps to come into their own and deliver a lap time. This will be an especially significant issue during qualifying as drivers and teams will have to guard against getting caught in traffic.

May 24, 2014
Lewis Hamilton makes it two in a row for Friday Free Practice

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes seem to be taking the fight to Red Bull this weekend as Hamilton made it a clean sweep of fastest times in both Friday Free Practice sessions.

Hamilton not only set the fastest times during the free practice sessions, but was also very positive about his tyre life over the longer runs while most other drivers were complaining about high degradation.

During the first free practice session, Hamilton posted a 1.39.630 to beat championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 0.037. In the second free practice session Hamilton seemed to up the ante, posting a 1.38.673 to beat Vettel by 0.108.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg also put in a strong performance during the free practice sessions, finishing FP2 in third only a fraction off Vettel’s time and ahead of Mark Webber in the other Red Bull.

The Ferrari’s were a little further off the pace with Felipe Massa finishing the second free practice session in 5th and Fernando Alonso in 7th place.

Kimi Raikkonen, who crashed during FP1 managed to get straight back out for the second free practice session and complete FP2 in 8th place. Click here to see the video footage of Raikkonen’s accident.

Raikkonen’s back has been an issue but reassurances from his physio are that the Iceman is good to race this weekend.

There were no repeats of Raikkonen’s accident during FP2 but both Charles Pic and Esteban Gutierrez had minor spins and Fernando Alonso also made a little trip on to the grass.

It was a little disappointing to see that there were no spectators out in the Korean grand stands during either free practice session. Such a pity that there is not more support for F1 races in Korea as this is a very interesting circuit that delivers interesting races.

Perhaps the threat of bad weather has kept spectators away but we sincerely hope that there will be more of a crowd for tomorrows FP3, qualifying and the race on Sunday.

Time sheets for both Friday free practice sessions are below.

As always we will have live commentary of FP3, qualifying and the race on Sunday on @F1_Madness. See you then!

FP1 Time sheet:

FP2 Time Sheet:

Photo Credits:

Lewis Hamilton – courtesy of Lewis Hamilton, via Twitter @LewisHamilton

Kimi Raikkonen crash – Lotus F1 Twitter Team

October 4, 2013
2013 Silverstone F1 Free Practice 3 Results

Free Practice 3 took place under dry, but windy conditions today at Silverstone.

Nico Rosberg went fastest again with a time of 1.31.487, ever so slightly ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes team are looking strong for a pole position – and possibly even a front row lock out in today’s qualifying session.

Sergio Perez brought out a red flag with 40 minutes remaining in the session, following what McLaren MD, Jonathan Neale called an “instantaneous failure” of his left rear tyre. The tyre literally just came off and Perez came over his team radio saying “the tyre exploded”. There was exstensive damage to his car but the McLaren team amazingly got him back out on track with 9 mins left of the session.

Felipe Massa sat out the end of the session while his team made a “precautionary” engine change.

Here are the results for the FP3 session:

June 29, 2013
Spanish F1 Grand Prix FP2 Results

Sebastian Vettel went fastest in FP2 in Barcelona this afternoon ever so slightly ahead of Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. Here is the timesheet for the Spanish F1 Grand Prix FP2 Results.

May 10, 2013