Wurz 4th fastest in final Friday Italian practice


Alex in fourth

By Andrew Hooper
September 9 2006

WilliamsF1's Alex Wurz would finish 4th fastest in final Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix. Team-mates Nico Rosberg and mark Webber would finish down in thirteenth and twentith positions in what us the usual state of affairs for the team with Alex conducting the majority of the setup work.

 
Italian GP Friday 2nd Practice
 

The start of the second Friday practice at Monza would see Davidson come out with a new engine after his engine failure in the earlier session. He would be joined by Yamamoto. Neel Jani, Franck Montagny, Robert Doornbos and Alex would also take to the track. Fisichella would also come out for
his first run while Davidson would set the first time of the session 1m:27.635. Giorgio Mondini, Sebastian Vettel and Takuma Sato were also out on the track as Fisichella pitted after his installation lap.

WurzAlex would go fastest with a 1m:26.873 but Davidson would move ahead of the WilliamsF1 driver with a 1m:26.409. Vettel's first lap would see him move ahead of the Honda with a 1m:26.279, but Davidson would improve to again move to the top of the times with a 1m:25.605. Alonso was out on his installation lap. Slowest at this time was Robert Doornbos with a 1m:28.264. Alex was now in third followed by Yamamoto and Sato. Alonso would pit. Yamamoto would run wide at the Lesmo corner leaving the track. He would continue but he would pit.

Alex would improve his time with a 1m:26.082 to move into second. Both Davidson and Alex would improve their times with a 1m:25.356 and 1m:25.884 respectively. They were still first and second. Alex's next lap would see a 1m:25.266 to go fastest. Ralf Schumacher had left the pit lane as Davidson would again suffer an engine failure at della Roggia. This was the second of the 2007 engines to fail. Alex would pit as Vettel set a new fastest first sector time. Ralf was in tenth with a 1m:28.365. Vettel would improve his time, 1m:25.400, but remained third.

On his next lap Ralf would move into fourth with a 1m:25.935. Montagny was now in fifth. Vettel would again improve with a 1m:25.008 to go fastest. Both Torro Rosso cars would leave their garage's with Speed leading Liuzzi. Alex would come back out as Liuzzi went ninth fastest with a 1m:27.281. Speed was slowest. The first of the McLaren's would come out, that of de la Rosa. Jani was now in sixth, 1m:26.162. Liuzzi and Speed were now in seventh and ninth. Trulli was now out on the track as de la Rosa went fastest, 1m:24.642, to lead Vettel and Alex. He would improve with a 1m:24.216. Both Nick Heidfeld and Michael Schumacher would leave the pit lane with thirty five minutes left in the
session. They were joined by Coulthard.

WurzAlex would spin his car at the second chicane but was able to keep going. De la Rosa and Vettel both pitted. Trulli was now in fifth, 1m:25.438. Klien would join team-mate Coulthard out on the track. On his first lap Michael would go fastest with a 1m:23.703. He was 0.5 seconds ahead of de la Rosa. Both Monteiro and Albers had come out. They were joined by the second Ferrari of Massa. Michael would improve his time with a 1m:23.138. He was now 1.078 seconds ahead of the second placed McLaren. Raikkonen and Nico had now also joined the action.

Heidfeld was now in third, 1m:24.330. Team-mate Vettel was now in fourth followed by Alex. Massa's first lap would see him set a time of 1m:23.308 as Michael returned to his pit. Raikkonen was now in fifth, 1m:24.954. Mark had now come out for his first run in the session. Massa would improve with a
1m:23.182 as Nico set a time of 1m:25.215 to move into eighth. Alex was now ninth. Alonso and Fisichella were also out on the track and Alonso would move into sixth just behind Kimi. Fisichella was in twelfth. With twenty three minutes left the order was Michael, Massa, de la Rosa, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Vettel, Alonso, Nico Alex, and Davidson making up the top ten.

Nico was still running as Mark moved into thirteenth with a 1m:25.572. After Davidson's engine failure neither of the other Honda's had come out. Kubica had also yet to come out. Nico would pit as Mark improve his time with a 1m:25.500. Alex would go back out and would move into third with a 1m:23.842. Both of the Ferrari's were out on the track. Nico was now in ninth and Mark fourteenth. Both had returned to their pits. Michael would pit but Massa continued. Massa's time was now a 1m:23.182 to be just 0.044 behind Michael.

Alex was back out with ten minutes left in the session. Trulli was now in tenth pushing Nico down to eleventh. Massa would pit leaving just Alex, Vettel, and Trulli the only runners from the top ten. Vettel was on a quick lap as Alex returned to his pit. Raikkonen was back out with seven minutes left in the session. Kubica would come out for the first time in the session. Vettel would go fastest with a 1m:22.631 as Nico returned to the track. De la Rosa was also out as we had a rush of drivers all coming out for their final runs. This included Alonso, Klien, Mark, Coulthard. Mark was now in seventeenth as Raikkonen improved to be in sixth ahead of Heidfeld.

Both of the Ferrari's had come out as Kubica was now in ninth. Vettel and Alex would come back out with just minutes remaining. Nico was in twelfth and he would finish his session as Vettel was on another quick lap as the session came to an end. e would finish with a time of 1m:22.631 to be over 0.5 seconds faster than Michael. Mark was now down in twentieth and Nico thirteenth. The top ten was Vettel from Michael, Massa, Alex, de la Rosa, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Alonso, Kubica, and Montagny.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                     Time     Laps
 1.  Vettel        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:22.631 29
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:23.138 11
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:23.182 12
 4.  Wurz          WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:23.414 26
 5.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:23.970 12
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:24.034 11
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:24.330 9
 8.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:24.577 15
 9.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:24.813 5
10.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:24.943 24
11.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:24.985 11
12.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:25.027 12
13.  Rosberg       WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:25.040 9
14.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:25.108 11
15.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:25.160 14
16.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:25.277 12
17.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:25.316 22
18.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:25.318 11
19.  Davidson      Honda               (M)  1:25.356 8
20.  Webber        WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:25.500 11
21.  Mondini       MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:25.586 29
22.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:25.707 19
23.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:25.755 21
24.  Jani          Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:25.878 32
25.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:26.058 31
26.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:26.118 21
27.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:26.705 14
28.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)
29.  Button        Honda               (M)
 

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