Monaco FP2 – Button and Rain

The second practice session was hampered by rain leaving teams to have their work cutout on Saturday. Limited dry running in the first quarter of hour meant Jenson Button topping the time screens.

Preparation on setting up the car for right balance started up in the very beginning as the drivers rushed out to try their new kits. knowing that rain would fall imminently.

Super soft tyres could define the strategy point which was missing entirely when light showers hit the track. It did continue until the next half hour period vanishing the chances of any runaround.

Though pit lane was busy again no one would really be able to find good lap times. Full-fuel test runs haven’t been worked out on the stickiest rubber which may affect the long stints on race.

Romain Grosjean relishing his time so close to home after powering in second but he as many others haven’t bolted on the optional Pirellis.

Felipe Massa left the session ahead of his team-mate at third – competitive times were set only before the rain’s arrival which stuck until the end. Racing lines weren’t good enough to hammer the pace down despite cars were being on track couldn’t dry out the racing line.

As it started, it ended, with Button quickest of the session. FW34 had lacked no pace as Maldonado was in the range of top runners ahead of Rosberg who showed progress from P1.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were rather quite in the session at seventh and tenth respectively. Schumacher had no issues at P2 finishing ahead of Vettel and Kobayashi who did competitive optional tyre runs on the dry track with Button was at eighth.

Kimi had limited dry run due to rain but he lapped around 25 of them to end the session at nineteenth. Senna was again a second off Pastor’s pace sandwiching between Resta and Hulkenberg at thirteenth.

By the final half-hour the track was wet and some drivers tried running on intermediate tyres.

In the rather boring session few drivers were taken to the escape roads at Mirabeau including both Williams, Massa and Perez as they lost control on the run down from Casino Square.

Heikki Kovaleinen’s hapless day persisted as he stuck with his reverse gear while going evasive.

To make matters worse, forecast suggesting possible heavy downpour on Saturday, major head-ache for teams on leading up to the race which is supposedly a wet one too.

Tyre degradation is a critical factor which is relatively unknown. Few gambles and compromises could be seen coming in the yet indecisive and unpredictable weekend of Monaco.



Author: Suren F1

TWITTER: @SurenSennaF1

Blog: surensennaf1.wordpress.com

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