An early effort on super-soft tyres by Jenson Button gave him the fastest time in the second session at Monaco.
Rain shortly after his first run meant few drivers were able to improve during the rest of the day’s running.
The second hour-and-a-half of practice got off to a very busy start as the teams anticipated rainfall early in the session.
With the weather radars showing rain heading towards the track, all 24 cars were on the track quickly including Heikki Kovalainen’s repaired Caterham and Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus.
Some teams found time to switch to the super-soft tyres to get a lap in. That allowed Jenson Button to set the fastest time early on, lapping in 1’15.746.
After the rain came the cars made for the pits and the track fell silent.
Within a few minutes the rain had stopped and the track dried. That encourage several teams to return to the circuit in search of dry running. But just as they’d reached the point of trying the super-soft tyres the rain returned, sending them back to their garages.
By the final half-hour the track was sufficiently wet for some drivers to try running on intermediate tyres. The tricky conditions caught several of them out but they kept their cars out of the barriers.
Both Williams drivers went off at Mirabeau – Bruno Senna reversing onto the track, Pastor Maldonado having to be pushed there by the marshals.
They started a fashion for going off at the corner. Sergio Perez was also recovered by the corner workers when he went off there, then Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen did likewise later on. Kovalainen was the only one who could not return to the track, so for the second session in a row his practice came to an early end.
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Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei
Ritvik Vinodkumar (@ritvik-vinodkumar)
24th May 2012, 14:40
WOW! Massa faster than Alonso
andae23 (@andae23)
24th May 2012, 14:47
Reminds me of neutrinos: last year neutrinos were claimed to go faster than light, which is against ALL the laws of physics.
melkurion (@melkurion)
24th May 2012, 15:54
Wahaha, damn read this on my iPhone at work, theb had to explain away why I suddenly laughed aloud
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
24th May 2012, 22:24
@andae23 I knew their results were in dispute but didn’t realise that it had been confirmed they were wrong?
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
25th May 2012, 7:23
@andrewtanner The press just ran with the story, while the OPERA researchers suspected some kind of measurement error from the get-go. As it turns out there were two issues that affected the reported result. It was a faulty connection of the fiber-optic cable and a faulty GPS.
@andae23 Actually it wouldn’t be against ALL the laws of physics. Some variants of quantum gravity might allow faster-than-light neutrinos (Lorentz violating models). Neutrinos could have tachyonic nature and could travel faster than light.
Kodongo (@kodongo)
24th May 2012, 14:48
That alone should tell you that this session was aberrational.
Massa faster than Alonso.
Massa in the top three.
Massa back on form? No, Mother Nature at its most capricious.
Pamphlet (@pamphlet)
24th May 2012, 16:08
Massa was faster than Alonso multiple times last year as well. It shouldn’t be a surprise.
What’s more surprising, however, is that Massa was either the fastest or 2nd fastest on the softs. And yes, I know it started to rain early.
Teague
25th May 2012, 23:44
Hmmm, no possible chance he’s a talented driver struggling with the car’s grip in dry conditions, and the rain leveled the playing field? It’s similar to Rossi in the last Moto GP race.
Carlitox (@carlitox)
24th May 2012, 17:03
Nah I don’t really think we should be excited. Wait for saturday. If he does qualify in the top 5 then I will be shocked. And since the only thing Massa still does outstandingly is the start, I’d pay a lot of attention to him. But, I insist, this means nothing.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
24th May 2012, 21:29
Exactly. Felipe has been fairly quick or at least quicker than Alonso in FP sessions on a number of occasions so far, but quali & races…a whole other story.
However, the whole “ultimatum” thing might have been a good idea. Q3 will tell. :)
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
24th May 2012, 14:45
Who knows who’s gonna be up there on saturday? So difficult to read this…!
Eggry (@eggry)
24th May 2012, 14:46
Getting harder to read…I just wish the weekend remains dry sessions.
Ean (@ean)
24th May 2012, 14:49
Button and Kobayashi only ones who set times on super softs Kobayashi did not get clear lap
Todfod (@todfod)
24th May 2012, 14:56
What about Massa, Alonso & Grosjean? Were their times set on the softs?
andae23 (@andae23)
24th May 2012, 15:00
They did their fastest lap on the primes, which means Grosjeans lap was quite impressive
ruth517 (@spanishconnection)
24th May 2012, 14:59
Did I see a smiling JB, not complaining about anything?
cg22me (@cg22me)
24th May 2012, 15:07
Yeah. I’m pretty sure I saw a MASSIVE smile on his face afterwards :P
Todfod (@todfod)
24th May 2012, 17:20
He had a big smile on his face after FP3 in Barcelona as well. I’m pretty sure it will get wiped off his face when Lewis, Fernando, Seb, Kimi & gang start showing their pace.
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
24th May 2012, 18:22
I don’t know what he would be smiling about. He is only 3 tenths faster than the Lotus which was on a slower tyre. Grosjean will take pole this weekend and then deliver a sixth winning driver for the start of the season, although Kimi will have something to say about it if he does not allow his lack of running to affect his perfomance.
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
24th May 2012, 15:01
That Lotus, at least in Grosjean hands, looks mighty fast.
dkpioe
24th May 2012, 15:08
fast times by grosjean all day, he could be a surprise for pole.
cg22me (@cg22me)
24th May 2012, 15:12
In a sense, though… He’s not much of a surprise.
He’s been showing incredible promise all year; only marred by his first two races.
True, though. He is definitely one to watch for pole this week!
Woofie
24th May 2012, 17:02
He’s 13.5 on Betfair for pole (25/2 in old money I think)
Martin (@martin1)
24th May 2012, 17:34
you mean 27/2?
John H (@john-h)
24th May 2012, 15:32
Would it be possible to have an additional column showing what tyre the fastest lap time was set on (like the official timing)? This would be particularly useful when looking at practice times and comparing team mates.
Nice one Petrov by the way. Come on Caterham, get some points!
Slowhands (@slowhands)
24th May 2012, 18:26
Here is a bit more tyre info for FP2:
Drivers who set fastest Practice 2 time on Super Soft tyres:
– Jenson Button (P1)
– Pastor Maldonado (P5)
– Mark Webber (P7)
– Kamui Kobayashi (P8)
– Lewis Hamilton (P11)
– Paul di Resta (P12)
– Sergio Pérez (P15)
– Vitaly Petrov (P16)
– Jean-Éric Vergne (P17)
from:
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/279037/drivers-striving-for-more-tyre-information/
Ean (@ean)
24th May 2012, 19:14
The named drivers used these tyres but only Button and Kobayashi set their fastest times as the others were caught out by the rain and traffic
BBT (@bbt)
24th May 2012, 20:02
Are you sure? They went out but was the fastest time on S. Soft. Di Resta was.
Ean (@ean)
25th May 2012, 6:26
The TV screens shows on which the times were set and they are these two are shown as super soft and the others not
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
24th May 2012, 18:29
Ferrari have arrived at the summit clearly, and look like the second fastest car on the grid behind Lotus with MacLaren third. The only way Grosjean is going to be beaten this weekend is by the experience of Kimi and Alonso, and also he must avoid making the same errors at the start that saw him drop down the grid at the start of the season.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
24th May 2012, 21:56
Agreed, on some level. Regarding Grosjean and Alonso, I mean.
However I don’t see Kimi fighting for the win this weekend as I don’t think Hamilton should be taken out of the equation. He’s been awfully quiet so far which gets me thinking he’s got something up his sleeve.
Could see the Saubers delivering something as well. If they manage to squeeze their drivers into Q3 and play the extreme-tire-conservative-strategies hand, we could be in for a massive surprise. Remember Koba – 5th from 12th on the grid in 2011. That was no mistake.
Same goes for Maldonado if he doesn’t pluck it into the barriers by any chance.
I could rule out the Red Bulls (unless it rains) and Mercedes though…
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
24th May 2012, 22:26
I don’t think we can read too much into FP1 either. I imagine peoples usual plans would have been shelved if they were expecting rain in the PM.