Pastor Maldonado (1:40.890) set the fastest time in the first practice of the 2012 European Grand Prix weekend on the dusty street circuit at Valencia. No team bothered using the soft tyre compound during the overcast and cooler session, saving those tyres for the presumably hotter and more typical afternoon session. Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Jenson Button, and Fernando Alonso completed the fastest five in the tight session, which saw the top nine times covered by less than two tenths of a second. There were many lockups and the runoff areas saw much use, but no driver crashed. Button spent much of the early part of the session with unusable KERS and grip difficulties, but seemed to have turned around in the latter stages.
Session Start:
The sky was overcast and the wind blowing, without the typical scorching temperatures, as the first ninety minutes session began in Valencia. Jules Bianchi sat in Nico Hulkenberg’s Froce India while Valtteri Bottas did so in Bruno Senna’s Williams. Karthikeyan, Ricciardo, and Vergne led to way onto the dusty circuit to begin the session. Most teams got straight to work on setting an installation lap, then sat in the garage to let someone else blow the dust off the circuit. Ten minutes into the session, only Kovalainen and Webber were out circulating. Only Glock had yet to post an install lap at that point.
Fifteen minutes into the session, no one had an engine running nor had any times been set. Kobayashi broke the silence, as Vergne followed. The former did not set a time, but Ricciardo soon joined his teammate as Vergne began what might be a full timed lap. His first time was 1:45.619. a few other drivers trickled out while Perez suffered an electrical issue resulting in the floor coming off and the seat out of the car.
1 Hour Remaining:
A half hour into the session, only Vergne (1:42.944), Ricciardo, and Bottas had set times, but Raikkonen, Kovalainen, and Alonso were also circulating. Alonso returned to the garage, but other teams looked ready to head out and get their runs started. Raikkonen (1:42.599) went straight to the top of the timesheets on his first lap, adding to the five other drivers with times. He was soon supplanted by his teammate, only to have Massa go fastest of all a few minutes later. He then lost out to a quicker lap by Raikkonen, who dropped to second minutes later after a fast lap from Rosberg (1:41.182). Though the track remained dusty and slippery, few drivers seemed to have particular problems with sliding or a badly handling car. Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso stepped out on his early laps, and Maldonado went well off line but was safe around the halfway point of the session.
At halfway, Rosberg (1:41.182) led the fifteen drivers who had set times. Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa, Maldonado, Kovalainen, Schumacher, Bianchi, Perez, and Vergne rounded out the fastest ten. No McLaren or Red Bull drivers had set a time, nor had Alonso. Button, despite a KERS issue, then posted the slowest time, then Alonso slotted into sixteenth. Meanwhile, Schumacher went second fastest, just under a tenth slower than his teammate, as more teams got down to business. Button soon improved to eighth, with Alonso moving up to third fastest on his first properly fast lap.
Lap times continued to drop as the track cleaned up, with Maldonado going fastest. Still, Kobayashi, Pic, Di Resta, Hamilton, Webber, and Glock had yet to set times, though Hamilton and Webber were both out on the track. Alonso had moved up to second after having dropped down the order while Vettel went fifth fastest. Hamilton and Webber had set times, but they were not yet competitive. The Briton jumped up to second fastest, only to have Alonso beat his time. Webber managed only to move to seventeenth, 2.3s off the fastest time.
30 Minutes Remaining:
Maldonado (1:40.890) still led with the session two thirds complete. Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Rosberg, Schumacher, Webber, Di Resta, Raikkonen, and Button rounded out the top ten. Kobayashi and Glock had yet to set a time. Only eight drivers were in the garage at that point, as the two drivers without times headed out onto the track. Soon, Weber moved up to second fastest, less than a tenth off Maldonado’s time. More drivers began locking up and sliding off line and into the runoff areas as they began pushing the medium, harder, tyre compound harder before switching to the soft tyre. With the sky still clouded over and the temperature much lower than both the day before and the projected race temp, the tyre wear and grip were a bit lower than usual.
Most drivers were back in the garage with fifteen minutes to go. Maldonado led Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Di Resta, Schumacher, Button, Hamilton, Rosberg, and Raikkonen as the top ten. All drivers had set times, and the top thirteen were covered by less than a second. Three tenth covered the top nine. Button, despite some feel issues earlier in the session, moved up to third fastest as the final ten minutes approached, then had some serious lock up and flat spotted his tyres. More drivers also began rejoining the circuit for the final minutes.
10 Minutes Remaining:
Maldonado (1:40.890) still led, over Webber, Button, Vettel, Alonso, Di Resta, Schumacher, Hamilton, Rosberg, and Raikkonen as the fastest ten. All of their times were set on the medium tyres. Nearly all the drivers made their way back onto the circuit for the closing moments, with no one switching compound and times little changed at the end.
Final Times for FP1, 2012 European Grand Prix:
Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:40.890 22 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:40.973 0.083 21 3. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:40.984 0.094 19 4. Jenson Button McLaren 1:40.994 0.104 19 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:41.065 0.175 26 6. Paul Di Resta Force India 1:41.105 0.215 15 7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:41.117 0.227 22 8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:41.158 0.268 18 9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.182 0.292 21 10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:41.620 0.730 22 11. Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:41.784 0.894 15 12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:41.838 0.948 19 13. Sergio Perez Sauber 1:41.861 0.971 16 14. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:42.109 1.219 20 15. Jules Bianchi* Force India 1:42.175 1.285 21 16. Valteri Bottas* Williams 1:42.299 1.409 24 17. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:42.442 1.552 26 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:42.758 1.868 27 19. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:42.777 1.887 28 20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1:43.209 2.319 19 21. Charles Pic Marussia 1:44.173 3.283 19 22. Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1:44.996 4.106 15 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:45.120 4.230 23 24. Timo Glock Marussia 1:45.338 1.448 7 *reserve driver
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