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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.
With
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.
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. |