Diesel fuel that is.
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After a diesel spillage prevented any meaningful running in first practice, rain ahead of FP2 meant drivers were unable to use slick tyres throughout the 90 minute session.
The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. As the only Russian on the grid, Daniil Kvyat is bearing the brunt of those duties this week. He soon trimmed that to 1m 53.854s, however, but it was clear that the track was still so slippery that this would not be a fast session due to the unusual circumstances. McLaren Honda – Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. In the dying minutes of the session Vettel went to the top of the time charts and was quickly overhauled by Massa.
Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado described the affected parts of the track as like driving on ice. Marussia Ferrari – Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.
Jolyon Palmer replaced Grosjean in FP1. As a result, Pirelli has nominated its two softest and supersoft compounds, a softer pairing than last year’s inaugural race.
“I suppose anyone who follows Formula One will know we’ve been here a million times”, he said. We could be in for a frantic FP3 tomorrow and an even more intriguing qualification session and race. The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was third. “I’m not backing down in my fight for the championship and gaining those positions back fair and square showed that”.
“Sometimes you do get a few strong attention”, said the 21-year-old. Hopefully tomorrow it will be dry, and we’ll see how the tires work. “They had to wash the circuit – it was a bit useless but what can we do?”
The drivers had to go out onto a dry track on intermediate and wet tyres because the area around turn eight was so treacherous.
The rain then set in for the afternoon, with Massa splashing around in a best time of 2:00.458.
Le Mans had enjoyed a protected slot on the global motorsport calendar but Formula One will have an unprecedented 21 rounds next year and shoe-horning them into the time available has forced compromises.
With 20 minutes remaining, only three drivers had bothered to set a lap time. Light rain also fell toward the end of the session. He stayed there only moments, as Alonso posted 1m 49.240s.
With 8 minutes remaining in the session, Hulkenberg did a 1:45.987. He would improve that to a 1:44.986.
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The top 10 ended up as: Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Vettel, Perez, Ricciardo, Sainz, Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen and Raikkonen.
