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The morning
practice session for the French Grand Prix would see Kubica fastest from
Anthony Davidson. Jenson Button would put in a late lap in his Honda and was the
fastest race driver in third ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Adrian Sutil
driving the third MF1 Toyota. Alex was seventh and Nico tenth in the first
session.
It was confirmed
that the WilliamsF1 will complete an examination of Nico's engine this
evening. Nico would use this engine for both Friday practice sessions but
depending on the check the team may have to change it. This engine was first
used in the United States Grand Prix where it was over-revved. The question
is as to whether the engine sustained any damage that could cause a failure.
If the engine is changed it will be replaced by a new Series 6 version that
is being used by Mark Webber for the first time this weekend.
The team had
also replaced the Budweiser logos on their cars in line with the
restrictions on alcohol advertising in France.
The second practice session would get underway with Kubica the first driver
on track followed by Doornbos, Sutil, Yamamoto and Wurz. Heidfeld would
heads also head out in his BMW Sauber joined by Davidson and Jani. The test
drivers would stay out while Heidfeld would return to the pits.
Alex would set the fastest time with a 1m:20.252 but Davidson would go
fastest while Christijan Albers came out in his MF1 Toyota. Doornbos would
move into second with a 1m:19.780. Sutil was in third. Kubica was in fifth,
1m:21.203 but he would return to his pit.
Ralf Schumacher and Scott Speed
would come out and their first laps would see them in fifth and fourth
positions. Speed would pit while Alex would move into fifth with a 1m:20.131. Albers was now in
eighth with a time of 1m:21.417. Trulli, Massa, and Nico were all out
completing their installation laps. Heidfeld was to pit.
Trulli would move into sixth, 1m:20.184. With forty five minutes remaining
Davidson was fastest from Doornbos, Sutil, Speed, Alex, Trulli, Ralf,
Albers, Jani, and Sato completing the top ten. Massa's first lap would see
him go fastest. Christijan Albers would go off and into the gravel at Imola.
He was able to get his car going again and returned to his pit.
Massa would
improve with a 1m:19.048 but Torro Rosso's Jani would move ahead of Massa
with a time of 1m:18.907. Barrichello had come out and he would move into
third with a 1m:19.259. Nico was in eighth position with a time of
1m:19.995. De la Rosa and Michael Schumacher had taken to the track for
their first runs.
As Massa pitted Michael was on a quick lap which would see him fastest with
a time of 1m:17.938. De la Rosa was down in ninth, 1m:19.830. Nico was now
in eleventh. Barrichello would go off at the Nürburgring chicane crashing
into the barriers ending his session. Alex was now down in thirteenth.
Michael would pit leaving just a handful of drivers running, including
Button who was only in fifteenth, 1m:20.279. Alex was back out joined by both Speed and Liuzzi. We
would see Coulthard, Klien, and Fisichella all come out for their
installation laps. They were joined by Alonso.
Coulthard's first lap would see him in fourteenth, 1m:20.135. Liuzzi was
down in seventeenth. Fisichella's first lap would see him move into third,
1m:19.033, but he was over a second slower than Michael. Massa was now in
fourth followed by Trulli, Barrichello, Davidson, and Alex. Nico was down in
fourteenth. Fisichella's next lap would see him go fastest with a time of
1m:17.916. Villeneuve and Heidfeld were both out on the circuit. Alonso was
now in twelfth after an easy first lap. But his next lap would be a lot quicker seeing him go fastest with a
time of 1m:17.498.
With twenty five minutes left we had a Renault one-two at the top of the
itmes as Fisichella pitted. Heidfeld was down in twenty second. We had yet
to see either Raikkonen or Mark Webber. Sutil was to spin his car at Imola
but was able to continue. Massa was back out as Heidfeld moved into
eleventh, 1m:19.652. Nico was now in seventeenth and back out on the track.
Alonso was to pit as Raikkonen came out for the first time this weekend.
Heidfeld would improve to now be in seventh, 1m:19.108. Michael was also out
on the track. Mark would finally come out for his installation lap.
Raikkonen's first lap would see him in tenth but he would improve to be in
eighth, 1m:19.140. Alex was now in twelfth, 1m:19.557. Nico was down in
sixteenth. With twenty minutes left the top ten was Alonso followed by
Fisichella, Michael, Jani, Massa, Trulli, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Barrichello,
and Davidson. Massa would pit without improving his position. Mark would
move into twelfth on his first lap, 1m:19.413. Sutil would move his MF1 ahead of Massa and into fifth. Kimi
would pit while de la Rosa went back out.
For Scott Speed his session would end when he was to crash his car at the
Nürburgring corner when he spun off backwards. All three WilliamsF1 drivers
would return to their pits. Again their was only a handful of runners with
Button been one of them. The Honda driver was down in twenty fourth,
1m:20.279. Alex would come back out with thirteen minutes left in the
session. Both Renault's had also left the pit lane. Nico was down in
twentieth. Both Toyota's had returned to the track. On his first lap Alex
would put in a quick lap moving into second, 1m:17.859 but Kubica would move
to the top of the times with a 1m:17.395. Alex was now in third.
Both Nico and Mark were still in their garages with under ten minutes
remaining. Both Kubica and Alex would pit. Doornbos and Ralf were now in
seventh and eighth. Alonso would pit while Sutil was now in sixth just
behind Michael. Nico was back out for his final runs of the day. Trulli was
in eighth. Mark was now down in sixteenth and Nico twentieth with five
minutes left. Kubica was back out and was on another quick lap lowering his time with a 1m:16.902. Alex
would also return to the track for his final laps. With the final minutes
counting down there was a rush of drivers coming back out. This included
Mark. After lowering his time Kubica would pit.
Mark was now in eighteenth and Nico twentieth, 1m:19.692. Button would
improve to be in twelfth, 1m:19.005. Davidson had moved up to be in third,
1m:17.750. Alex was now in fourth and Mark and Nico were now in eighteenth
and nineteenth places. Both drivers were over 2.5 seconds off the quickest
time as the session came to a close. At least Alex's time does indicate that
the FW28 has the pace. In the final moments Liuzzi would split the two
WilliamsF1 drivers. Raikkonen would stop his car in the third sector with a
problem with his car. |