The jury in the case of Wolff – which is still very much out, largely because
she has never won a race at senior level – was given no additional evidence
on Friday to assess her speed. Luminaries such as Sir Stirling Moss have
been vocal in their criticism.
Italian Lella Lombardi was the last to race in 1976, while the last at a grand
prix weekend was Giovanna Amati, who failed to qualify for three races with
Brabham in 1992. Wolff is not the only hope for women in F1 this year, with
Sauber’s Simona de Silvestro hoping to run in practice later this year.
Williams must have been thinking that was the worst of it for Friday morning.
Just minutes later, however, Felipe Massa lost control coming out of Stowe
at 130mph and went careering into the barrier, ruining his car. It was a
simple driver error rather than mechanical failure in this case.
Elsewhere in practice, Mercedes re-established some of the advantage they
appeared to have lost to Williams in Austria in an unusually action-packed
Friday. Jean-Eric Vergne had a scare when the front-left tyre on his Toro
Rosso came loose, while Nico Rosberg topped the morning session by
seven-tenths of a second from Lewis
Hamilton. The Briton was marginally quicker in the afternoon. Best
of the rest went to Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari,
although it will take something extraordinary to beat Mercedes this weekend.
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Times from first practice
1 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 1min 35.424secs, 2 Lewis Hamilton
(GB) Mercedes 1:36.155, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:36.263, 4
Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:36.623, 5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin)
Ferrari 1:36.703, 6 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:36.921, 7
Jenson Button (GB) McLaren 1:36.963, 8 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Toro Rosso
1:37.175, 9 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso 1:37.277, 10
Kevin Magnussen (Den) McLaren 1:37.231, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force
India 1:37.720, 12 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:37.910, 13
Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber 1:38.056, 14 Daniel Juncadella (Spa)
Force India 1:38.083, 15 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Sauber 1:38.328, 16
Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:38.917, 17 Felipe Massa (Bra)
Williams 1:39.461, 18 Max Chilton (GB) Marussia 1:39.814, 19
Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Caterham 1:40.597, 20 Robin Frijns (Ned)
Caterham 1:42.261, 21 Susie Wolff (Sco) Williams 1:44.212, 22
Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Lotus No time
Times from second practice
1 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Mercedes 1:34.508, 2 Nico Rosberg (Ger)
Mercedes 1:34.736, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:35.244, 4
Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:35.511, 5 Sebastian Vettel (Ger)
Red Bull 1:35.627, 6 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:36.016, 7
Jenson Button (GB) McLaren 1:36.228, 8 Kevin Magnussen (Den) McLaren
1:36.299, 9 Kimi Raikkonen (Finl) Ferrari 1:36.554, 10
Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso 1:36.583, 11 Felipe Massa (Bra)
Williamss 1:36.671, 12 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Toro Rosso 1:36.778, 13
Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber 1:36.951,14 Pastor Maldonado (Ven)
Lotus 1:37.064, 15 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:37.097, 16
Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:37.236, 17 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger)
Force India 1:37.449, 18 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Sauber 1:37.520, 19
Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:38.658, 20 Kamui Kobayashi (Jap)
Caterham 1:39.068, 21 Max Chilton (GB) Marussia 1:39.224, 22
Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Caterham 1:39.762