By Huw Alban
July 14 2006

Things certainly got going for Midland F1 Racing during the second free practice session with all three drivers putting in a decent crop of laps. Between them they completed 71 laps of the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours.

Due to unforseen work commitments, Midland F1 Online were again not able to follow the session lap for lap but 12 minutes into the session I can tell you that all three M16s were out on track and completing lap times. Adrian Sutil was again shining for the team sitting in third place on a best lap time of 1.19.956 just over half a second slower than the current pace setter.

The next point at which we were able to come back to the live timing screens was with 16.30 of the session to go. Adrian had dropped to 5th, but had improved his best lap time to a 1.18.992 although this was now 1.4 seconds off the pace. Tiago Monteiro was 15th and Christijan Albers 26th place at this point and with none of the Midland F1 drivers on the track.

A few minutes later that changed with Christijan Albers improving to 18th position on a 1.19.852. Not far behind Christijan was Adrian who also managed to scrape his best lap time down to a 1.18.049, maintaining his previous half a second plus gap to the front.

All the drivers returned to the garage, but at the 5.59 mark Christijan ventured out again followed by Tiago with 5.12 to go.

Interestingly neither driver appeared to be putting in exceptional lap times. Whether that was due to traffic, or a consiquence of their tyre comparison work we can only guess at. Two laps into the run, Christijan suddenly recorded green sector times and popped in a 1.19.183, but this was the only highlight on the final minutes of the session for Midland F1.

Adrian Sutil also ventured out for a final run with a couple of minutes of the session remaining, but failed to improve his time. He eventually finished 7th fastest overall out of the 28 drivers that posted lap times today.

Timesheets from the Second Free Practice Session for the French Grand Prix:

1 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW 1:16.902
2 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:17.498
3 Anthony Davidson Honda 1:17.750
4 Alexander Wurz Williams-Cosworth 1:17.859
5 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:17.916
6 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:17.938
7 Adrian Sutil MF1-Toyota 1:18.049
8 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:18.175
9 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:18.274
10 Neel Jani STR-Cosworth 1:18.639
11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:18.721
12 Jenson Button Honda 1:19.005
13 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:19.013
14 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 1:19.108
15 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.140
16 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:19.183
17 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:19.259
18 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:19.413
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:19.589
20 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:19.692
21 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:19.701
22 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.809
23 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:19.996
24 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:20.003
25 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 1:20.135
26 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW 1:20.154
27 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari 1:20.409
28 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda 1:21.132

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