Massa quickest as rain returns at Silverstone

2011 British GP second practice

July 8, 2011 at 2:41 pm by Keith Collantine

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Silverstone, 2011

Felipe Massa was fastest in the second practice session at Silverstone.

But Friday’s second 90 minutes of practice saw even wetter conditions than the first.

The weather had improved in the interval. But five minutes before the second session was due to start the heavens open and heavy rainfall doused the track.

A handful of cars came out as the session began, but they soon retreated back to the pits without setting a time.

As the rain continued to hammer down the track fell silent until more than half the 90 minutes had passed.

Finally the rain eased and cars began to appear on the circuit again, led by Jaime Alguersuari, who set the fastest time to begin with.

One by one further cars appeared. Nico Rosberg was among the first to follow, but he had a moment at Abbey and ran onto the run-off area.

The times continued to improve and made for an exciting ends to a session that had started very slowly.

In the end it was a question of which driver started their lap last. Felipe Massa snatched the quickest time with a 1’49.967.

Barely a few minutes earlier Michael Schumacher had set the quickest time. But the time improved so quckly he ended the session in 12th place.

Nico Rosberg took second place, seven-tenths of a second off Massa.

Kamui Kobayashi and Lewis Hamilton, the latter one of the last drivers to join the track, were third and fourth.

Pos.	Car	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap
1	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’49.967		9
2	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’50.744	0.777	16
3	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’51.395	1.428	16
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’51.438	1.471	6
5	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’51.518	1.551	6
6	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’51.738	1.771	18
7	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’51.781	1.814	7
8	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’51.992	2.025	13
9	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’52.169	2.202	12
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’52.189	2.222	21
11	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’52.198	2.231	9
12	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’52.325	2.358	12
13	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1’52.578	2.611	16
14	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’52.587	2.620	6
15	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’52.869	2.902	8
16	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1’54.023	4.056	8
17	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’54.274	4.307	16
18	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’54.545	4.578	4
19	25	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1’54.714	4.747	13
20	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1’55.155	5.188	8
21	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1’55.155	5.188	12
22	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’55.549	5.582	10
23	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1’55.828	5.861	10
24	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1’56.037	6.070	6

2011 British Grand Prix

Browse all 2011 British Grand Prix articles

Share this with your friends:

65 comments on Massa quickest as rain returns at Silverstone

Atticus (@atticus-2) said on 8th July 2011, 17:27

I was not able to watch the sessions and lap times are not any of use either.

I am ‘blind’ now heading into FP3 and Q.

- TheBrav3 said on 8th July 2011, 17:49
  
  There is such thing as the bbciplayer you know ;)
  
  - Atticus (@atticus-2) said on 8th July 2011, 19:43
    
    Thank you, Sir, but I was at work. :)
    
    I thought it’s UK only anyway.
    
    Staying with the Friday, I guess it’s because of the downpours we don’t get our usual FP analyses. The teams have it all to do tomorrow.
    
georges10099 said on 8th July 2011, 17:30

hamilton went to the stewards office to ask why his DRS was open when he was on slicks but on a wet track. he had a talk with them about how to improve safety too.

Now, conspiracy theories are put to bed ;)

mattr said on 8th July 2011, 17:31

both lewis and webber had a meeting with the stewards because the apparently used drs during p1.no further action is required.

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/gbr-document-18.pdf

- TheBrav3 said on 8th July 2011, 17:51
  
  It’s a practice session all teams have free use of drs. They should not have even had to waste their time talking it through.
  
  - georges10099 said on 8th July 2011, 18:03
    
    even in practice it is not allowed in the wet.
    
Elliot Horwood said on 8th July 2011, 18:01

I need some help, at silverstone grandstands is ROW A at the front or at the back of the grandstand? thanks

geo132 (@geo132) said on 8th July 2011, 18:06

Any idea why Ferrari are referred to as “Scuderia Ferrari” at FIA.com opposed to “Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro” from earlier this season?

- Robyn said on 8th July 2011, 18:33
  
  Adam Cooper reported that they have actually officially changed their name:
  
  Ferrari changes official team name
  
jake said on 8th July 2011, 21:09

so Mercedes were running an illegal car in this session, blowing 50% off throttle in protest against Red Bull. There performance was very good throughout this session, meaning if the rules are equalized, either with Red Bull’s rediculous advantage being taken away, or others being able to do the same, we could see mclaren looking very good.

AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 9th July 2011, 8:56

I thought the timing app was bust at first…just that wet though!