Juan Pablo improves to 5th in final practice


Ralf Schumacher

By Andrew Hooper
June 12 2004

Juan Pablo Montoya would improve to be fifth in the final practice for the Canadian Grand Prix. Ralf was down in twelfth. Will the team be able to turn their weekend around and secure some competitive grid positions for the race?

   
Canadian GP Saturday 4th Practice
 
the final Canadian practice would give the BMW WilliasmF1 team some reason to be encouraged with Juan Pablo finishing in fifth position. But Ralf was still down the time sin The opening Saturday practice would see Michael Schumacher lead Renault's Fernando Alonso, so with the jaguar of Mark Webber first out onto the circuit the teams set about fine tuning their cars for the later qualifying sessions. Jordan's Giorgio Pantano was replaced by Timo Glock as a result of Pantano's financial problems.

MontoyaWebber would set the first time of the session with a slow lap time of 1m:16.529. Team-mate Christian Klien would improve on Mark's time to go fastest with a 1m:15.176. McLaren's David Coulthard would quickly take over the top spot but was just as quickly beaten by BAR's Jenson Button.

Coulthard would improve on his time with a 1m:14.768, compared to Button's 1:14.675. Fernando Alonso would set a time of 1m:14.427 to move into first. But Michael would easily move into first position with a time of 1:13.581, nearly four tenths quicker than his previous best earlier this morning. Such is Michael's superiority that he was able to set an even quicker time of 1:13.420 a full second faster than Alonso's time.

Ralf and Juan Pablo were in seventh and eighth respectively. The team was still struggling to find any speed from the FW26. Rubens Barrichello and BAR's Takuma Sato were still yet to set a time. But it would be the Renault pair of Alonso and Trulli who would take the fight to Michael. Alonso would firstly set an amazing time of 1m:12.901 to go fastest. Team-mate Jarno Trulli would pish Fernando down one place when he would go fastest with a time of 1m:12.833, half a second faster than Michael.

MontoyaThe McLaren's were again showing some form with Raikkonen fourth and Coulthard sixth. With Fisichella moving into seventh this would push both Ralf and Juan Pablo down one spot. Finally both Rubens and Takuma would take to the track, with some fifteen minutes left in the session. Sato would set the fifth fastest time of the session with a lap of 1m:14.190. Ralf and Juan Pablo were now down in eleventh and twelfth, with both drivers two seconds a lap slower than Trulli.

Rubens would push Takuma out of fifth position but just as quickly Takuma would do the same to Rubens. The Toyota team, after their encouraging Friday, would have Panis and da Matta in fifteenth and sixteenth. Coulthard would snatch fifth position with a 1m:13.686. With five minutes left in the drivers would come out with Jenson Button setting the quickest second sector time moving into third. All the cars were out making their final runs.

Sato would move into fourth while Juan Pablo was able to squeeze a time good enough for fifth fastest. Ralf was down in twelfth. Is Juan Pablo going to get the better of Ralf again. At the front Trulli would go even faster with a lap of 1m:12.629. So with the session ending the top eight would be Trulli, Alonso, Button, Sato, Juan Pablo, Michael. Schumacher, Raikkonen and Coulthard.
 
Pos Driver Team Time Laps

1. Trulli Renault (M) 1:12.629 13
2. Alonso Renault (M) 1:12.901 + 0.272 14
3. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:13.026 + 0.397 14
4. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:13.235 + 0.606 11
5. Montoya WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:13.320 + 0.691 14
6. M. Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:13.420 + 0.791 14
7. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:13.566 + 0.937 14
8. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:13.686 + 1.057 13
9. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:13.904 + 1.275 10
10. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:14.340 + 1.711 20
11. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:14.521 + 1.892 24
12. R. Schumacher WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:14.697 + 2.068 16
13. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:14.835 + 2.206 29
14. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:14.902 + 2.273 10
15. Panis Toyota (M) 1:14.916 + 2.287 16
16. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:15.332 + 2.703 12
17. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:15.987 + 3.358 14
18. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:16.417 + 3.788 17
19. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:16.579 + 3.950 17
20. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:16.825 + 4.196 17
 
 
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