WilliamsF1 struggle in final San Marino practice


Mark in 12th

By Andrew Hooper
April 22 2006

The WilliamsF1 team would struggle in final practice for the San Marino Grand Prix. Mark would finish in 12th while Nico was in 19th after having crashed his car damaging the front left when he hit the tyre barrier. It is going to be a difficult qualifying for the team based on their lack of pace.

 
San Marino GP Saturday Practice
 

Friday practice would see both Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg down in nineteenth and seventeenth positions. But both drivers were not unhappy with the way that things had gone. Now it was down to the final one hour Saturday practice session.

WebberWith the start of the session both of the MF1 cars of Monteiro and Albers, plus Ide and Sato would take to the circuit. They were joined by Ralf Schumacher and Liuzzi. The first driver to set a time would be Ralf with a time of 1m:28.374. He was followed by Ide with a 1m:34.485. With five minutes of the session completed we had just two cars out on the track. Both drivers were able to improve their times with Ralf setting a time of 1m:27.910 while Ide did a 1m:30.836.

With ten minutes run both of the Honda's and the second Toyota of Trulli were out on the circuit. They were joined by both Villeneuve and Massa. We also had both the MF1 cars back out. Massa would move to the top of the times with a 1m:27.437 while Trulli was in second. Button was in fourth with a 1m:28.461, followed by team-mate Barrichello. Villeneuve was in tenth. On his next lap Jenson would move into second with a 1m:27.612. Montoya had completed one installation lap. Massa would be quickest with a time of 1m:26.369. Jenson was in third while Villeneuve had moved into fourth with a 1m:27.283.

Both of the Red Bull cars were now out on the circuit. The Torro Rosso of Scott Speed was in seventh with a 1m:28.318. Raikkonen had also joined in the action. Albers was in sixth. Both of the Renault's had come out for their installation lap. We had yet to see either of the WilliamsF1 cars with just under forty minutes remaining in the session. The first of the FW28's to come out was that of Nico Rosberg. So far the order was Massa from Trulli, Button, Villeneuve, Klien, Ralf Schumacher, Albers, Speed, and Coulthard.

The second of the Ferrari's was out on the circuit leaving just Mark Webber to make an appearance. Alonso would go second fastest on his first lap, but was half a second down on Massa as Schumacher is also going quickly. No he has to lift to avoid a Liuzzi, who had spun. On his next lap Fernando would go fastest with a 1m:25.653 but Michael would move ahead of the Renault with a 1m:25.014. Heidfeld was in fourth with a 1m:26.731. On his first lap Nico would set a time of 1m:28.157 to be fifteenth. Mark Webber had yet to come out.

But it would be the Toyota of Ralf that would grab the quickest time, 1m:24.924. He would lower his time with a 1m:24.667 to be 0.347 ahead of his brother. With just under thirty minutes remaining Mark would finally make an appearance. The order was Ralf followed by Michael, Alonso, Massa, Heidfeld, Trulli, Button, Speed, Klien, and making up the top ten Raikkonen. Mark's first lap was a 1m:28.780. Montoya had yet to set a time. Mark and Nico were now in seventeenth and eighteenth. Trulli would move ahead of Heidfeld with a 1m:26.717. Fisichella was down in eleventh.

Rosberg, Webber, & Sam Michael.Both Mark and Nico would continue to circulate but they were still down the order. Michael was now on a quick lap going fastest in the first two sectors. He would finish the lap with a time of 1m:23.787 to be a massive 0.880 ahead of Ralf. This was a stunning lap from the Ferrari driver. Liuzzi would move in fifth and Villeneuve sixth. Coulthard, Speed, and Klien would all move ahead of the Canadian. Mark was now in fourteenth with a 1m:26.961 while Nico was down in nineteenth. Massa was now in second showing that the Ferrari's are very strong this weekend.

Raikkonen was down in fifteenth while Montoya had yet to set a time. But Kimi would put in a quick lap with just over ten minutes remaining. He would set a time of 1m:24.626 to move into third. Barrichello was now in sixth with a 1m:25.041. Team-mate Button was down in sixteenth. Montoya's car was been worked on by his mechanics explaining his non appearance. Button was now in sixth with a 1m:24.850. It would go wrong for Nico when he would stop his car in the first sector. Nico would run wide onto the curbs, getting his FW28 on to the gravel crashing head on into the tyre wall. His front left suspension was damage. Mark was back in his garage.

With the final five minutes of the session starting there would be a hive of activity as the majority of the drivers took to the circuit for their final laps prior to qualifying. The first quick time would come from Fisichella who would move into second, 1m:24.377. Massa was now in third ahead of Raikkonen. Ralf was fifth and Alonso sixth. Button was in seventh followed by Klien. Mark was down in seventeenth. Alonso would move ahead of his team-mate, going second fastest with a 1m:24.068. Ide would spin for the third time at the Variante Ante while Liuzzi would runs wide at the same corner as Rosberg but managed to avoid the wall.

Mark had moved into twelfth with a 1m:25.205 but he was 1.4 seconds off the pace. Despite their expressions of confidence from Friday the WilliamsF1 drivers are well off the pace this weekend. With the end of the session it would be Michael leading from Alonso, Fisichella, Massa, Raikkonen, Ralf, Button, Villeneuve, Klien, and Liuzzi. For the WilliamsF1 team they would have two hours in which to repair Nico's car and sort out their lack of pace. It was found out that Montoya's problem was an oil leak with his car, seeing him fail to set a time.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                     Time     Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:23.787 14
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:24.068 15
 3.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:24.377 21
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:24.383 17
 5.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:24.626 12
 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:24.667 21
 7.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:24.850 23
 8.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:24.916 13
 9.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:24.984 13
10.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:24.994 15
11.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:25.041 20
12.  Webber        WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:25.205 14
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:25.575 15
14.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:25.662 19
15.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:25.701 9
16.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:25.803 22
17.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:25.806 15
18.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:26.476 18
19.  Rosberg       WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:27.019 11
20.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:28.267 18
21.  Ide           Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:29.330 20
22.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)           1  
 

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