Webber 5th in final Monaco practice


Mark in 5th

By Andrew Hooper
May 21 2005

BMW WilliamsF1's Mark Webber would finish in fifth after the final practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix. Team-mate Heidfeld was down in eleventh. The session was red flagged as a result of a coming together between Villeneuve and Coulthard. Fisichella was fastest.

 
Monaco GP Saturday 2nd Practice
 

The final practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix would see BMW WilliamsF1's Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld finish in fifth and eleventh. At one stage Mark was as high as third.

WebberThe second Saturday practice session at Monaco would be slow with only a handful of drivers taking to the track. But Raikkonen and Alonso were both out, joined by Trulli and Luizzi. Felipe Massa would take to the track after having missed the first session. Joining them was team-mate Villeneuve.

Kimi would be quick right from the start, setting a time of 1m:16.828. But Fernando would beat him with a 1m:16.242. On his second lap Kimi would go fastest with a time of 1m:16.015. Trulli was in third. Massa's first lap was a 1m:16.917, half a second quicker than Villeneuve.

At the top Kimi would lower his time with a 1m:15.685. Nick Heidfeld was out and his first lap would see him set a time of 1m:16.284 to move into third. The Red Bull's of Coulthard and Luizzi were in fourth and fifth. Kimi's time would be beaten by the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. Michael's time of 1m:15.633 was a big improvement over his earlier session time.

Mark Webber was in seventh with a 1m:16.643. But this time would see him drop down to tenth as the likes of Barrichello went faster with a 1m:16.621 to move into fourth. Juan Pablo would suffer a puncture with his car forcing him back to the pit lane. Nick was now in fifth. In a showing that he has been able to get some pace out of the FW27 Mark would move into third with a time of 1m:16.014 to be just 0.381 behind Michael's time.

But it a stunning drive Mark would lower his time to go fastest with a 1m:15.354 to go fastest. Trulli was now in fourth with a 1m:16.132. Mark would improve his time to go even faster with a 1m:15.235. Nick was now in seventh, with just over twenty minutes remaining in the session. Luizzi would take this spot from the German. The Italian would improve to move into fourth with a time of 1m:15.988.

But Mark's time at the top was short lived with Michael setting a stunning time of 1m:14.961 to go fastest but it was then Kimi's turn to set a blistering pace. He would set a time of 1m:14.258 to go fastest. He would be joined by Montoya who set a time of 1m:14.543 to move into second. So now Mark was down in fourth. Nick was able to improve his time with a 1m:15.964 to be in fifth.

Coulthard would move past Nick with a time of 1m:15.772 to be in fifth. But Kimi would see him very quick time easily beaten by Alonso who would set a time of 1m:14.047. Coulthard was now sixth and Rubens seventh pushing Nick down to eighth. Mark was in fifth. Mark was some 1.1 seconds off Alonso's pace. Now quickly things change for the BMW WilliamsF1 team.

With fifteen minutes remaining Mark would fight back setting the third fastest time, with a 1m:14.418 to be now just 0.371 off Alonso's time. mark was fastest in the final sector. Ralf Schumacher was now in fourth with a time of 1m:14.459, and Montoya fifth. For Renault Fisichella was way off the pace with a time of 1m:16.310 to be in fourteenth. Nick was now in tenth. Mark's third place would come under attack from last years winner Trulli. The Toyota driver would move into third with a time of 1m:14.322.

Nick would set his personal best with be in ninth with a 1m:15.196. There was now just eight minutes remaining in the session. Coulthard was now in seventh with a 1m:14.582. Michael Schumacher was in eighth. But with five minutes remaining it would be Fisichella who would surprise everyone with a stunning time of 1m:14.040 to go fastest and make it a Renault one-two at the top. He would improve on this with a 1m:13.988.

But red flags would be waved as a result of David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher have a coming together. The Sauber of Villeneuve may have also been involved. The replays showed Villeneuve hitting Coulthard and Ralf been involved. With the session not been restarted Fisichella was left on top of the times.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                   Time     Laps
 1.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:13.988 18
 2.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:14.047 14
 3.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:14.258 10
 4.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:14.322 11
 5.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:14.418 10
 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:14.459 10
 7.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:14.543 7
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.582 16
 9.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:14.961 14
10.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.998 16
11.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:15.196 10
12.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:15.637 8
13.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:16.123 17
14.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:16.148 10
15.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:18.506 12
16.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:19.034 7
17.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:19.606 10
 
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