Ferrari appear to have the race pace to back up the one-lap performance they showed in the second practice session in Valancia.
Red Bull are close behind but McLaren didn’t exhibit the same performance they had in the first session – in terms of straight-line speed or lap time.
Here’s the interactive data for the second practice session at Valencia.
View interactive chart full screen
Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom
Familiar patterns were clear to see in the second practice session at Valencia. After early running on the medium tyre most drivers sampled the super-soft around halfway through the session.
They generally improved only slightly on the super-soft tyres. As more rubber goes down on the surface they will probably find those tyres give better grip.
At the end of the session they switched back to the medium tyre for race simulation on high fuel loads. These laps were around three seconds slower than the best times of the session, but it’s interesting to note that Fernando Alonso had the quickest lap of the times posted in the last quarter of an hour:
Best times from the final 15 minutes of FP2
Pos. | Car | Driver | Car | Best lap | |
1 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’42.682 | |
2 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’43.176 | 0.494 |
3 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’43.204 | 0.522 |
4 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’43.234 | 0.552 |
5 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’43.288 | 0.606 |
6 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’43.377 | 0.695 |
7 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’43.449 | 0.767 |
8 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’43.513 | 0.831 |
9 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’43.566 | 0.884 |
10 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’43.646 | 0.964 |
11 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’43.706 | 1.024 |
12 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’43.865 | 1.183 |
13 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’44.078 | 1.396 |
14 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’44.124 | 1.442 |
15 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’44.162 | 1.48 |
16 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’44.348 | 1.666 |
17 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’44.789 | 2.107 |
18 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’45.189 | 2.507 |
19 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’45.433 | 2.751 |
20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’46.168 | 3.486 |
21 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’46.382 | 3.7 |
22 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1’47.187 | 4.505 |
23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’47.499 | 4.817 |
There was a lot of traffic on track at this point which may distort the picture slightly. Sebastian Vettel was able to keep pace with Alonso to begin with but not in the final few laps.
Lewis Hamilton wasn’t far off Alonso’s pace either but we saw him lose time behind Michael Schumacher at the end of the session.
Of course it’s always possible that some drivers and teams were running higher than average fuel loads. Jenson Button seems a likely candidate, as his times were consistently around a second off Alonso’s.
But even taking all this into account it’s an encouraging sign for Ferrari who previously have tended not to be the fastest team at this stage in a weekend.
Examining the ‘ultimate laps’ (the times each driver would have done had he set his best three sectors on the same lap) confirms the impression that Ferrari have got on terms with Red Bull this weekend. Alonso’s ultimate lap was a 1’39.082, Vettel had a 1’39.213 and Webber 1’39.255.
As expected Red Bull were the fastest cars in the final sector which contains all of the track’s few high-speed corner. They will decide later tonight whether they’re going to run their F-duct throughout the rest of the weekend.
McLaren may have been pursuing different set-up options. Their cars were 2kph slower through the speed trap than they had been this morning, suggesting they may have increased their wing angles.
But Hamilton feels Ferrari have found an advantage by getting their version of Red Bull’s ‘blown diffuser’ on their car before McLaren:
It was always going to be interesting to see how quickly the blown-diffuser cars could get up to speed – and they looked very competitive this afternoon, particularly over a single lap. And the grip they appear to have through the high-speed stuff could make them difficult for us to touch.
Lewis Hamilton
Lotus’s hopes of out-qualifying a midfield team on pure pace ahead of their 500th Grand Prix start appear to be slim as they’ve been around a second off the pack so far.
Timo Glock’s session ended when his car broke down, but at that point he was within two tenths of a second of Heikki Kovalainen.
HRT F1 endured a series of problems in their second home race. Karun Chandhok had a hydraulic failure while completing his fastest lap. That followed a gearbox failure for Christian Klien in the first session and a drive boot failure for Bruno Senna at the same time.
Pos. | Car | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Lap | At time | Laps |
1 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’39.283 | 18 | 59 | 33 | |
2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.339 | 0.056 | 18 | 67 | 27 |
3 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.427 | 0.144 | 16 | 62 | 29 |
4 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’39.650 | 0.367 | 9 | 45 | 22 |
5 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’39.749 | 0.466 | 12 | 57 | 24 |
6 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’39.880 | 0.597 | 12 | 44 | 28 |
7 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’39.947 | 0.664 | 12 | 66 | 22 |
8 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’40.020 | 0.737 | 9 | 19 | 30 |
9 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.029 | 0.746 | 15 | 56 | 27 |
10 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’40.174 | 0.891 | 27 | 74 | 33 |
11 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’40.287 | 1.004 | 7 | 42 | 24 |
12 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’40.387 | 1.104 | 22 | 63 | 33 |
13 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’40.618 | 1.335 | 12 | 44 | 29 |
14 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.906 | 1.623 | 24 | 67 | 34 |
15 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.945 | 1.662 | 23 | 71 | 30 |
16 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.115 | 1.832 | 7 | 17 | 35 |
17 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’41.371 | 2.088 | 16 | 59 | 30 |
18 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.457 | 2.174 | 7 | 19 | 36 |
19 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’42.467 | 3.184 | 21 | 65 | 31 |
20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’42.993 | 3.710 | 18 | 62 | 30 |
21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’43.811 | 4.528 | 7 | 16 | 14 |
22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’43.854 | 4.571 | 18 | 68 | 27 |
23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’44.095 | 4.812 | 14 | 60 | 24 |
24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1’44.566 | 5.283 | 15 | 67 | 21 |
2010 European Grand Prix
Rahim.RG
25th June 2010, 17:49
Ferrari are back in the game with Red Bull, Mclaren are right up there too…with Mercedes consistently closing in through…..its going to be a cracker…..I really cant predict now
miguelF!
25th June 2010, 21:36
i dont know why is mclaren whining about the blown diffuser they have a huge straigh line advantage cause of their fantastic f-duct
miguelF!
25th June 2010, 21:50
its almost as if all teams have been handicaped i still dont understand the fia rule about holes on the chassis
pSynrg
26th June 2010, 1:04
@miguelF!: Where are McLaren ‘whining’? A comment on the potential of your competitor(s) does not constitute whining.
Also, if you don’t understand the advantage a leading diffuser setup would give you over a so called ‘f-duct’ then you don’t understand the way either of them work.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th June 2010, 9:42
Exactly. I think i heard Red Bull talking about the McLarens being quick or Ferrari working their tyres very well at several events this year before they went on to get a 1-2 in qualifying.
Talking up your opponents chances and talking down your own is usually a sign of being pretty confident your there (or just admitting your completely out of it, but that certainly is not the case with McLaren here).
matt88 (@matt88)
25th June 2010, 19:19
hopefully Ferrari is back!
Todfod
25th June 2010, 20:23
I think Ferrari will be great this weekend, but if McLarens’ updates for the British GP work as well, they will be behind them again.
miguelF!
25th June 2010, 21:36
the problem is that mclaren is not going to surpass redbull
Tomás
25th June 2010, 21:02
Yes, it seems that Ferrari is back. But I think it might be early to draw conclusions and more about it. Red Bull continues to be strong, I am suspicious that Alonso’s return was for effect or tires or low fuel. Because after the rest of the session he did not walk at that level.
But at least as much as Alonso and Massa were optimistic able …
hugs to all
F1Yankee
26th June 2010, 5:03
wow, that new ferrari is a hell of a thing, fully loaded with wingdings, doodads, and the new big thing part 2
BasCB (@bascb)
26th June 2010, 9:45
I think it will be McLaren with Lewis up front. Alonso close behind and one of the Red Bulls having a good shot at pole again as well, i think Vettel but Webber might do it as well.
But i don’t count out Button, as he did tend to take a little more time to get up to speed this year and Massa might go far as well here. Rosberg might be in the hunt for p3, but probably not.