27/03/2015
NEWS STORY
It was mixed fortunes for Mercedes in this morning's session, Nico Rosberg topping the timesheets whilst teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered an engine issue which has kept his team busy ever since.
"Investigations during the break have revealed a failure on the Power Unit inlet system of Hamilton's car," revealed Mercedes before the start of the session. "This does not affect his PU allocation for the season. Crew working hard to get him back out before the end of FP2."
With Williams maintaining its policy of not going for times on Fridays, it is unclear whether the Grove outfit is making progress relative to its German rivals however, no such problems for Ferrari, the Maranello outfit finishing second and third. Indeed, a late charge saw Kimi Raikkonen close to within 0.373s of Rosberg.
Romain Grosjean was a surprising fourth quickest, while both Toro Rossos made it into the top seven, once again seeming to have made a better job of it than its sister team.
The main talking point was the return of Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard completing 19 laps on his way to posting the fourteenth best time, three places ahead of his teammate.
This morning also marked the 2015 debut of Manor, both drivers over 6.5s off the pace and completing just 16 laps between them.
Early days, but the Force India duo also appear worryingly off the pace.
Tyres available this weekend are the hard (prime) and medium (option). There are two DRS zones, one on the start/finish straight and the other on the final straight.
As we await the green light, the air temperature is 32 degrees C, while the track temperature is 59 degrees C. Although it is currently bright and sunny, there is a chance of rain.
The cameras pick up on Alonso paying a visit to the Ferrari pit-wall, where he shakes hands with former teammates.
The lights go green and Stevens, waiting at the end of the pitlane performs a practice start as he is the first to take to the track.
As the Manor driver begins a flying lap, he is joined by Raikkonen and Kvyat.
The Briton posts 1:46.705.
"Very poor traction and exit in the last corner and turn two," complains Raikkonen as he begins his first flying lap. He subsequently posts 53.853.
Next time around Raikkonen improves to a far more sensible 41.002 but it isn't enough to beat teammate Vettel who has just posted 40.980 to go quickest.
Sainz goes third with a 42.671 ahead of Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Stevens.
As Maldonado sheds a piece of carbon fibre on the back straight, Ricciardo improves to third with a 41.789. The cameras pick up on Maldonado's Lotus whose left-side sidepod is askew possibly due to a pressure problem.
Nasr is on track, the Brazilian having handed his car over to reserve driver Marciello this morning.
As Grosjean runs wide in T1, Verstappen improves to third with a 41.765.
Bottas and Masa go third and fourth as Rosberg begins his first flying lap of the afternoon.
No messing, as Rosberg shoots straight to the top of the timesheets with a 40.438, 0.214s quicker than Vettel's best.
Just twenty minutes into the session, all but Kvyat, Hamilton and Merhi have posted times.
Button reports that gear change from first to second is "very poor".
Merhi posts 58.382 before improving to 54.849. His teammate is currently on 46.705.
On the half hour, Mercedes reveals that Hamilton is "suited and booted".
Out come the yellow flags as Merhi goes off and is stuck in the gravel at T11. Indeed, the session is red flagged as the Manor is stranded just yards from the edge of the track.
"I did a spin in the corner," says the Spaniard. "Yes, we can see that," is the weary response.
At this point, it's: Rosberg, Vettel, Raikkonen, Bottas, Massa, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Ericsson, Sainz and Grosjean.
As the session resumes, one of the first to head down the pitlane is Hamilton. Vettel is also on track, on the option rubber. Raikkonen, Rosberg, Bottas and Massa also out on the softer rubber.
A spin for Vettel at T11 - where Merhi came to grief - ruins the German's qualifying lap simulation. Elsewhere, Grosjean reports that he has no power. His team tell him to pit.
On the prime rubber, Hamilton's first flying lap sees the Briton go fifth (41.169), 0.887s off the pace.
A slight wobble for Rosberg who has improved to 40.282. Moments later, Raikkonen goes quickest with a 40.163.
Having flat-spotted his tyres with that spin, Vettel asks to do a long run on the harder rubber.
As Rosberg only minimally improves (40.218), Hamilton is told that once again his telemetry has failed. He is ordered to pit.
The top five - Raikkonen, Rosberg, Bottas, Massa and Vettel - are covered by just 0.489s.
"It's going to be interesting to see what the gap is between medium and hard tyres," says Pirelli. "We reckon between 1.0-1.2s"
Button complains of massive understeer in low speed corners. The Briton is currently sixteenth, one place behind his teammate. "We're a long way from where we need to be," he warns, "not a positive change."
With 37:00 remaining, Alonso is the only driver on track. The Spaniard is currently 2.343s off the pace.
Hamilton climbing out of his car suggests that there are indeed problems with his W06.
Lotus reveals that Grosjean's day is over. "Bit of investigating required that'll take longer than what remains of FP2," admits the Enstone outfit. The Frenchman is currently seventeenth, 2.785s off the pace. His teammate is eighteenth.
With Ricciardo (10th) having only completed 5 laps, Kvyat, who was late coming out, (41.473) has done 9 laps.
After several minutes of almost no activity, suddenly a number of engines fire up.
Kvyat, finally on the option rubber, posts 40.346 to go third as mechanics continue to work on his teammate's car.
Hamilton is back on track, on the option rubber for the first time, as are most of his rivals, including Vettel.
As drivers focus on longer runs with an eye on Sunday afternoon, Raikkonen and Sainz are the only drivers on the prime rubber.
His first flying lap on the softer rubber sees Hamilton go quickest (39.790), his only purple however coming in the final sector.
Still experiencing telemetry problems, which are even affecting his radio communications, Hamilton pits as he complains of "downgraded shifts".
Verstappen is currently eighth, the youngster continuing to impress.
"Performance gap between the compounds so far seems a little less than we expected," admits Pirelli, "between 0.8 - 0.9s"
Perez, currently thirteenth, is told that he's doing a better job with his tyres than his teammate who is currently fifteenth.
Cameras pick up on Bottas who is clearly struggling for grip, the Finn unable to hold of Kvyat and then Raikkonen.
Such is the degradation, certainly on some cars, we could be seeing more pit stops this year not less.
Perez is another driver really struggling for grip, the Mexican clearly unhappy with oversteer as Verstappen is all over him.
A mistake from Alonso - or maybe a gust of wind - sees the Spaniard lock-up and run wide in T15 and take a trip down the pit lane entry road.
"I'm in neutral, what do I do," says Kvyat. However, he finally gets some gears and is able to head back to the pits.
"My front tyres are completely gone," moans Verstappen. On board footage confirming the fact.
The session ends with Hamilton quickest, ahead of Raikkonen, Rosberg, Kvyat, Bottas, Massa, Vettel, Verstappen, Ericsson and Ricciardo.
Maldonado is eleventh, ahead of Nasr, Perez, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Button, Grosjean, Stevens and Merhi.
Though Hamilton has had his fair share of problems this morning, Mercedes is clearly still the pace-setter.
However, Ferrari is looking good and as rivals look unhappy with the softer rubber, the Maranello outfit might be in a position to mount a decent challenge this weekend.
Let's hope so.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.