UK Friday practice not encouraging for WilliamsF1


Mark in 12th

By Andrew Hooper
July 8 2005

Friday practice for the 2005 British Grand Prix was not encouraging for the BMW WilliamsF1 team. The second session would see Mark and Nick down in 12th and 18th. After the poor performances in France this may be a position from which the team and drivers may not be able to improve on.

 
British GP Friday 2nd Practice
 

For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the second Friday practice session at Silverstone would see the day end with a similar result to that achieved in France. Both drivers would be down the order with Mark and Nick finishing the session in twelfth and eighteenth positions. Based on the teams performance in France, and even taking into account the fact that the team does tend to run slower on the Friday, the times that both drivers were able to achieve may be something that they can not improve upon.

The practice session would see several drivers quickly setting times with de la
Rosa fastest with a 1m:23.129. In second was Red Bull's Vitantonio Liuzzi with a time of 1m:24.705, followed by Toyota's Ricardo Zonta in third with a 1m:25.129. Renault's Fernando Alonso would make his first appearance and his first lap would see him set a time of 1m:23.336. The rest of the session would see the drivers complete extensive numbers of laps in comparison to the earlier Friday session.

WebberHe would improve on his time with a 1m:22.060 to go fastest. Joining Alonso would be McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya. Juan Pablo would move into third with a 1m:22.335 while team-mate de la Rosa would go fastest again with a 1m:21.763. Both Klein and Villeneuve had spins early in the session. Michael Schumacher was out and he would set a time of 1m:21.569 which would see him in third. Montoya would set a time of 1m:21.364 to be in second while de la Rosa would again secure the fastest time but Michael would move ahead of the Spaniard with a time of 1m:21.261. The German would improve on this with a 1m:21.044. Alonso was again second with a 1m:21.313. But it would again be de la Rosa who would go fastest, beating Michael, with a time of 1m:20.875.

In another strong display from the McLaren team Kimi Raikkonen would move ahead of his team-mate with a 1m:20.454. But the third McLaren of Montoya was again fastest with a 1m:20.252. As for the BMW WilliamsF1 driver Mark Webber was in fifth with a time of 1m:21.235. Nick Heidfeld was down in seventeenth with a time of 1m:22.767.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli made his first appearance and with twenty minutes of the session remaining was in ninth with a time of 1m:21.806. Massa would move into eighth with a time of 1m:21.577 while BAR's Takuma Sato would have smoke coming from the rear of his car in what looked like an engine related problem.

Red Bull's Liuzzi was in fourth but was pushed down one place when Ricardo Zonta moved into second with a time of 1m:20.372, to split the McLaren trio. Mark was now down in seventh and Nick seventeenth. Zonta would go fastest with a time of 1m:20.086 with fifteen minutes remaining. Trulli had moved into fourth while David Coulthard was now in seventh, ahead of Michael Schumacher who was in eighth.

HeidfeldThe Renault's of Fisichella and Alonso were down in eleventh and twelfth positions, with just over ten minutes left in the session. Button was now in ninth with Mark now in tenth. The order was Zonta, Montoya, Raikkonen, Trulli, de la Rosa, Liuzzi, Coulthard, M. Schumacher, Button and Mark Webber.

Pedro would set a personal best time of 1m:20.807 and would move ahead of Trulli and into fourth. Zonta was on a very quick lap setting a time of 1m:18.964 to improve his time and remain fastest. Ralf Schumacher would jump into fourth with a 1m:20.602. Team-mate Trulli was now in sixth. Nick was now in eighteenth and Mark eleventh.

With less than five minutes remaining in the session and de la Rosa would snatch the top spot away from Zonta with a lap of 1m:18.589. The two Friday drivers were over 1.5 seconds ahead of third placed Montoya. Pedro would improve with a time of 1m:18.530. Alonso was now in seventh with a time of 1m:20.990. So wit the session coming to an end Mark and Nick were in twelfth and eighteenth.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                   Time     Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:18.530 37
 2.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:18.964 31
 3.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.252 17
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.384 15
 5.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:20.602 23
 6.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:20.816 27
 7.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:20.990 21
 8.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.004 33
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.034 19
10.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:21.044 21
11.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:21.186 28
12.  Webber        WilliamsF1-BMW    (M)  1:21.235 20
13.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:21.279 15
14.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.323 21
15.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:21.519 21
16.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:21.577 28
17.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:22.180 19
18.  Heidfeld      WilliamsF1-BMW    (M)  1:22.500 19
19.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:22.795 12
20.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:22.812 20
21.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:23.390 22
22.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:23.629 22
23.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:23.891 26
24.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:24.594 21
 
Message Board

Bookmark or share this story with: