Valencia Practice 1: Maldonado fastest chased closely by Red Bulls
22 June, 2012
Pastor Maldonado ended the first free practice session in Valencia fastest of all
Jun.22 (F1 Media) Last time the Formula One circus was in Spain, Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix, in Barcelona, and the Williams driver signaled his intent again on the harbour-side streets of Valencia by claiming top spot on the timing screens in the first free practice session of the European Grand Prix weekend.
Also showing their hand pretty early in proceedings – not their custom of late, were the Red Bull duo with Sebastian Vettel a mere 0.0083 off the top time and Mark Webber 0.011 down on his teammate – it can hardly get any closer at the top.
Friday morning saw track temperatures around 14°C lower than their peak yesterday afternoon as heavy cloud cover descended on the Western Mediterranean, presenting conditions similar to those experienced in Montreal two weeks ago.
There was no great rush to take to the circuit, with most drivers content to do only installation laps in the first third of the session. Only the Toro Rosso pair recorded times, while performing the public service of cleaning the racing line on what is a very dirty, low-grip street course.
With an hour to go track action began to pick up, with first the Lotuses and then Rosberg’s Mercedes each briefly holding top spot. Then Maldonado appeared and was the first driver into the 1m40s bracket. His best time of 1:40.890 would stand for the rest of the session.
Behind him Fernando Alonso went second for Ferrari before being eclipsed by the late-arriving Red Bulls. Webber and Vettel were running with near-identical times. Webber initially took P2 only to be supplanted in the last ten minutes by Vettel.
Behind them Jenson Button appeared to have put his recent struggles behind him, taking fourth place, a tenth of a second behind Maldonado. He led Alonso, Paul Di Resta, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top ten.
The session was largely trouble-free with most drivers completing around 20 laps. Daniel Ricciardo managed 28 laps as Toro Rosso worked to optimise their new exhaust system, while Timo Glock was only able to complete seven laps for Marussia.
Subbed by AJN.
Practice 1 – Friday, 22 June 2012
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:40.890 | 22 | |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.973 | 0.083 | 21 |
| 3 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.984 | 0.094 | 19 |
| 4 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:40.994 | 0.104 | 19 |
| 5 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:41.065 | 0.175 | 26 |
| 6 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:41.105 | 0.215 | 15 |
| 7 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:41.117 | 0.227 | 22 |
| 8 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:41.158 | 0.268 | 18 |
| 9 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:41.182 | 0.292 | 21 |
| 10 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:41.620 | 0.730 | 22 |
| 11 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:41.784 | 0.894 | 15 |
| 12 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:41.838 | 0.948 | 19 |
| 13 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:41.861 | 0.971 | 16 |
| 14 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:42.109 | 1.219 | 20 |
| 15 | 12 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.175 | 1.285 | 21 |
| 16 | 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:42.299 | 1.409 | 24 |
| 17 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:42.442 | 1.552 | 26 |
| 18 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:42.758 | 1.868 | 27 |
| 19 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:42.777 | 1.887 | 28 |
| 20 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:43.209 | 2.319 | 19 |
| 21 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:44.173 | 3.283 | 19 |
| 22 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:44.996 | 4.106 | 15 |
| 23 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:45.120 | 4.230 | 23 |
| 24 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:45.338 | 4.448 | 7 |
Maldonado has a reputation as a street track specialist and has won on the Valencia Street Circuit in GP2. He looked very assured in this morning’s first practice session and went to the top of the timesheet at around the 50 minute mark.
Friday morning saw track temperatures around 14°C lower than their peak yesterday afternoon as heavy cloud cover descended on the Western Mediterranean, presenting conditions similar to those experienced in Montreal two weeks ago. There was no great rush to take to the circuit, with most drivers content to only do installation laps in the first third of the session. Only the Toro Rosso pair recorded times, while performing the public service of cleaning the racing line on what is a very dirty, low-grip street course.
With an hour to go track action began to pick up, with first the Lotuses and then Rosberg’s Mercedes each briefly holding top spot. Then Maldonado appeared and was the first driver into the 1m40s bracket. His best time of 1:40.890 would stand for the rest of the session. Behind him Fernando Alonso went second for Ferrari before being eclipsed by the late-arriving Red Bulls. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were running with near-identical times. Webber initially took P2, within a tenth of Maldonado’s time, only to be supplanted in the last ten minutes by Vettel who lapped a hundredth of a second quicker than his Australian team-mate.
Behind them Jenson Button appeared to put his recent struggles behind him, taking fourth place, a tenth of a second behind Maldonado. He led Alonso, Paul Di Resta, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top ten.
The session was largely trouble-free with most drivers completing around 20 laps. Daniel Ricciardo managed 28 laps as Toro Rosso worked to optimise their new exhaust system, while Timo Glock was only able to complete seven laps for Marussia.
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- Montreal Practice 3: Vettel only just faster than Alonso
- Monaco Practice 3: Rosberg fastest as Maldonado crashes
- Maldonado silences his critics with cool, calm and historic Spanish GP victory
- Bahrain Practice 1: Hamilton tops opening session
- Melbourne Practice 2: Schumacher fastest in topsy turvy session
