Wet session thwarts teams’ development plans

2011 Turkish GP first practice analysis

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Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, Istanbul, 2011

Rain in the first practice session at Istanbul was exactly what the teams testing new parts did not want.

Variable conditions, reduced grip and less downforce mean car upgrades cannot be properly tested.

And Pirelli were not able to see the results of any running on their new development slick tyre.

It also makes reading much into the practice times very difficult. Here’s the data from the first practice session in Istanbul:

Longest stint comparison

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Sebastian Vettel 104.954
Mark Webber 103.365 102.564
Lewis Hamilton
Jenson Button 120.666
Fernando Alonso 102.474 100.897
Felipe Massa 122.142 131.293 114.333
Michael Schumacher 100.33 101.031 100.962 103.812 100.974 111.111 122.686 100.132 123.755
Nico Rosberg 104.246 101.014 112.11 100.089 124.135
Nick Heidfeld 107.1 120.737
Vitaly Petrov 105.992 135.877
Rubens Barrichello 107.135 103.913
Pastor Maldonado 119.071 102.597 104.36 103.511
Nico Hulkenberg 104.523 109.701 107.68 102.855 123.592
Paul di Resta 105.709 104.265 103.847
Kamui Kobayashi 104.576 105.628 107.355 126.95
Sergio Perez 115.791
Sebastien Buemi 105.308 105.089 105.517 105.455 105.119 104.913 108.658 104.212 105.134 137.184
Daniel Ricciardo 109.573 103.392 102.435 101.52 101.814 102.096
Karun Chandhok 111.676 118.969 133.319
Jarno Trulli 105.297 103.986 136.622
Narain Karthikeyan 108.461 113.96 114.542 110.685
Vitantonio Liuzzi 106.155 107.284 106.51 106.271
Timo Glock 107.421 121.242
Jerome d’Ambrosio 109.518 107.429

Speed trap

# Driver Car Engine Max speed Gap
1 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari Ferrari 295.5
2 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes Mercedes 289.2 6.3
3 15 Paul di Resta Force India Mercedes 287.9 7.6
4 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes Mercedes 287.7 7.8
5 18 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso Ferrari 287.6 7.9
6 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber Ferrari 286.7 8.8
7 19 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso Ferrari 286.2 9.3
8 14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 283.9 11.6
9 17 Sergio Perez Sauber Ferrari 283.3 12.2
10 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari Ferrari 281.6 13.9
11 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault Renault 278.9 16.6
12 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault Renault 275.2 20.3
13 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams Cosworth 272.1 23.4
14 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Renault 269.3 26.2
15 24 Timo Glock Virgin Cosworth 268.7 26.8
16 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT Cosworth 267.9 27.6
17 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus Renault 258.2 37.3
18 25 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin Cosworth 255.9 39.6
19 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 255.1 40.4
20 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams Cosworth 246 49.5
21 4 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 240.9 54.6
22 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT Cosworth 238.1 57.4
23 20 Karun Chandhok Lotus Renault 223.9 71.6
24 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 181.2 114.3

Complete practice times

Car Driver Car Best lap Gap Stint lap At time Laps
1 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1’38.670 1/1 55 13
2 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’40.072 1.402 1/1 42 14
3 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1’40.132 1.462 8/9 92 18
4 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 1’40.338 1.668 2/2 51 9
5 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1’40.401 1.731 2/2 52 10
6 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1’40.421 1.751 4/4 52 16
7 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1’40.697 2.027 2/2 61 14
8 19 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’41.094 2.424 63 17
9 18 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’41.178 2.508 2/2 59 22
10 14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1’41.347 2.677 1/1 55 16
11 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1’42.564 3.894 2/2 52 5
12 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1’42.597 3.927 2/4 89 6
13 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1’43.525 4.855 2/2 86 10
14 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1’43.913 5.243 2/2 87 5
15 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1’43.986 5.316 2/3 92 6
16 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1’44.787 6.117 1/3 45 20
17 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’44.954 6.284 1/1 62 3
18 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1’45.183 6.513 1/2 52 15
19 25 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1’45.237 6.567 1/1 49 11
20 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1’47.123 8.453 89 13
21 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1’48.461 9.791 1/4 86 7
22 20 Karun Chandhok Lotus-Renault 1’51.676 13.006 1/3 91 6
23 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2’00.666 21.996 1/1 95 4
24 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes No time 1

2011 Turkish Grand Prix

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    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    19 comments on “Wet session thwarts teams’ development plans”

    1. The 2 teams at the front hardly doing any running…

      Vettel crashed. Hamilton is said to have a clutch problem.
      But what about Webber and Button?

      1. Saving their wet tyres for the race perhaps?

        1. Indeed, if this is going to be full wet race all the way through those tyres are going to be so valuable, coming into the pits for the 4th set that have wear could be very costly.

          1. I guess there was not that much they could have learnt. Makes the Vettel spin even more of a bitter thing for him.

            But if the racs offers a bit of wet running, or just has the threat of it that might be a nice twist to the weekend.

    2. Was a pretty boring FP session to be honest. I was very surprised that more teams didn’t go out to sample the wet tyres.

      I would imagine that this afternoons times won’t be particularly representative as its a drying track too.

    3. I suspect that will see Hulkenburg out perform Di Resta many times this year.

      Of course, it’s still early, so I could be wrong.
      I just think Hulkenburg deserves a race seat.

      1. Its not like Di Resta has had a bad start to the season though!!

      2. Sutil’s career appears to be stalling in a Trulli-esque fashion. I have to say Di Resta and Hulkenberg is a more exciting driver line up than the current one…

        1. Too right it is. Sutil hasn’t excited me since 2009.

      3. I think you are reading way too much into a friday test time. Di Resta has matched Sutil pretty comfortably in quali and the races so far, and I cant say that Hulkenberg would be able to do the same. Hulk does deserve a drive soon, but I think DiResta deserves to show what hes got before people start saying that the Hulk deserves that seat.

      4. I’m more and more a Hulkenberg fan, and Ricciardo is surprising too.

    4. Fernando was going some on that straight, bit dicey doing that in those conditions.

    5. Liuzzi did the 2nd most laps out of anyone and managed to beat the Virgins and a Lotus.

      Really hope those updates work, maybe the HRT is just good in rain like the STR in 2008?

    6. Hi Keith. When will IE9 be supported?

      1. hadn’t seen the graphs don’t display in IE9 ‘native’: use the Compatibility View (“broken file” icon to the right of the place you type the address) to correct.

    7. What’s wrong with IE9 ? using it right now to write this comment.

      1. sry misplaced reply attempt… see previous post.

    8. Looks like a really good session from Buemi. Good top speed, decent fastest lap and probably the most consistent throughout the session.

    Comments are closed.