WilliamsF1 7th & 10th after 1st Saturday practice


Nick in 7th

By Andrew Hooper
May 21 2005

The BMW WilliamsF1 7th & 10th after the opening Saturday practice for the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix. At one stage Nick was as high as second with Mark in fourth but both drivers would be pushed down the times as the session continued.

 
Monaco GP Saturday 1st Practice
 

For the BMW WilliamsF1 team both Nick and Mark would have a practice session that would see them near the top in the early stages but they would drop down the order to finish with Nick in seventh and Mark tenth.

Things would return to the normal schedule with the teams starting the first of their two Saturday practice sessions. After Thursday practice it would be Renault's Fernando Alonso on top of the times. Wurz and Coulthard were second and third. With the start of the session the two Minardi's of Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers were first out on the track. They would be joined by the Jordan and McLaren drivers.

WebberThe first driver to set a time would be Tonio Liuzzi with a time of 1m:24.705 in his
Star Wars sponsored Red Bull RB1. He would lower his time with a 1m:21.486. Albers would set a time of 1m:25.033 with team-mate Friesacher setting a 1m:25.841.

Toyota's Ralf Schumacher would head out, with Ralf having to deal with a penalty after the wrong left front tyre was put on his car on Thursday. He was hit with a half-second qualifying penalty. Michael Schumacher was also out. Ralf would move into second with a 1m:22.795 but Kimi Raikkonen would move into this spot with a time of 1m:21.787.

Kimi would improve to go fastest with a time of 1m:19.620. Montoya was in second with a 1m:20.138. But Ralf and Michael would move into second and third with times of 1m:19.669 and 1m:19.896. Kimi would again improve to go fastest with a time of 1m:18.958. But both Juan Pablo and Ralf would beat this time. Juan Pablo would go fastest with a time of 1m:18.415 while Ralf's time was a 1m:18.716.

Both WilliamsF1 drivers were out and Nick Heidfeld would move into fourth with a time of 1m:19.038. Mark Webber was back in eighth with a 1m:20.646. But Mark would improve to go fourth fastest with a 1m:18.590. Nick would take this spot with a time of 1m:18.149. A big improvement from the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers. Mark would improve with a 1m:18.065 only to be beaten again by Nick who set a time of 1m:18.048. Nick and Mark were still in third and fourth.

At the front it was Montoya from team-mate Raikkonen. Coulthard was in firth and Rubens sixth with a time of 1m:18.371. Alonso was down in twelfth but he would improve to move into ninth with a 1m:19.667. Team-mate Fisichella was one place ahead. But it would be Coulthard who would push the McLaren's off the top spot setting a time of 1m:17.180 to go fastest.

His place at the top was short lived as Alonso would set a time 0.2 seconds faster, a 1m:16.951 to go fastest. Nick and Mark were now in fifth and sixth, one second off the Renault's pace. Michael was down in tenth, nearly three seconds slower than Alonso. The Toyota's Of Ralf and Trulli were in eighth and thirteenth.

So with ten minutes remaining it would be Alonso on top with Coulthard second, Montoya third. Luizzi would move into ninth with a time of 1m:18.819. he would improve to be eighth. So would Ralf with a time of 1m:17.634 to go fourth fastest. He would lower this time with a 1m:17.520 to be in third. Brother Michael was now in eighth.

With the session coming to a close their would be the usual flurry of activity. Fisichella was now in fifth with a time of 1m:17.628. But with the fastest second sector time Giancarlo would go fastest with a time of 1m:16.706 to give us the two Renault's on top. For Nick Heidfeld he would set the fastest third sector time on his way to second fastest with a time of 1m:16.935. But Kimi would take that spot with a time of 1m:16.875. Mark was down in ninth.

The top spot would again change as Ralf Schumacher would go fastest with a time of 1m:16.508. Things were changing very rapidly. But Ralf's time at the top was brief as Fisichella ten Montoya would go fastest. Juan Pablo set a time of 1m:16.197. Michael Schumacher was now in fifth and Kimi sixth. Alonso was in fourth as the session came to a close. In the closing minutes Heidfeld was to brush the barriers at St Devote, seeing him return to his pit.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                   Time      Laps
 1.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:16.197 16
 2.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:16.403 12
 3.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:16.508 16
 4.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:16.513 12
 5.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:16.803 14
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:16.875 15
 7.  Heidfeld      WilliamsF1-BMW    (M)  1:16.935 12
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:17.180 13
 9.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:17.475 12
10.  Webber        WilliamsF1-BMW    (M)  1:18.065 8
11.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:18.215 12
12.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:18.259 15
13.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:18.640 9
14.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:19.271 13
15.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:20.215 15
16.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:20.348 18
17.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:21.563 18
18.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  No Time
 
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