WilliamsF1 struggles in Saturday British practice


Mark Webber

By Andrew Hooper
June 10 2006

Both WilliamsF1 drivers would struggle in the final Saturday practice for the 2006 British Grand Prix. Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg would finish in seventheenth and eighteenth positions. Both drivers would not come any where near the times set by Friday driver Alex Wurz.

 
British GP Saturday Practice
 

With WilliamsF1 Friday driver Alex Wurz third fastest in the final Friday practice the WilliamsF1 team would have one final session in which to make their final decisions regarding tyre choice. With the start of the Saturday practice session at Silverstone both MF1 and Super Aguri teams would send their drivers out. Tiago Monteiro was the first driver out onto the circuit. Both of the MF1
drivers would return to their pits after just one lap. The first driver to set a time would be Takuma Sato, 1m:29.483. he would be followed by Montagny with a 1m:30.077.

WebberTakuma would lower his time with a 1m:28.570. Montagny would follow with a 1m:28.798. Red Bull's David Coulthard would come out for his installation lap. Montagny would go fastest with a 1m:27.809. Torro Rosso's Tonio Liuzzi was also out for his first lap. Montagny would lower his time with a 1m:27.532. On his first lap Coulthard would go fastest with a time of 1m:26.628. Both Albers and Monteiro were back out. Montagny would pit.

Sato was now in second with a 1m:27.525 while Coulthard had improved his time with a 1m:25.598. Liuzzi's first lap was a 1m:28.006. Sato would pit. Monteiro would move into fifth with a 1m:28.010. Team-mate Albers had stopped out in the first sector pulling off the circuit with a problem. Coulthard would pit while Monteiro was now in second and Liuzzi third. Trulli was out on the circuit. Liuzzi would move ahead of the MF1 driver. Monteiro was now fastest with a 1m:25.100. Raikkonen had come out for his first run while Trulli was back in his pit.

Kimi was on his first timed lap and would move to the top of the times with a 1m:24.513, with just over forty minutes remaining in the session. Kimi would lower his time with a 1m:24.211. Trulli was back out joined by Nick Heidfeld. On his next lap Kimi would again lower his time with a 1m:23.742. Kimi would have a moment on the grass at Woodcote but was able to continue. Now we had Ralf Schumacher, Alonso, Barrichello, Villeneuve and Button all come out. Coulthard was also back out on the circuit. Kimi would pit his McLaren. Klien and both of the Ferrari's had also taken to the track. On his first lap Alonso would go fastest with a 1m:23.739. Heidfeld was in fourth, 1m:25.535.

Ralf was in sixth just behind Coulthard in fifth. Monteiro was still in third. For Sato his session would come to an end when he was to crash at Becketts, hitting the barriers removing his front right wheel and front wing. Klien was in ninth. Massa's first lap would see him in twelfth. Michael was in fifteenth. Button and Villeneuve were in thirteenth and fourteenth. For Super Aguri it would get even worse when Montagny was to put his car into the gravel at the complex. Massa was now in third, 1m:24.222. Michael was on a quick lap been fastest in the first sector. Klien was now in fourth, 1m:24.363. Massa's next lap would see him fastest with a 1m:23.401 but team-mate Michael would move ahead with a 1m:23.217.

We had yet to see either of the WilliamsF1 cars with thirty minutes left in the session. Montoya would make his first appearance in the session. Button would move into sixth, 1m:24.823. Finally Nico would come out leaving just Mark Webber and Fisichella yet to come out. Montoya would move into third with a 1m:23.731. Michael would lower his quickest time with a 1m:22.435. There was only a handful of drivers on the circuit. Nico's first lap would see him move into thirteenth, 1m:25.659.

The Toyota's Of Ralf and Jarno were in fourteenth and fifteenth. Nico's next lap would see him jump up to ninth, 1m:24.850. But with Liuzzi moving into seventh Nico was pushed down to tenth. Mark would take to the circuit while Nico improved to now be in sixth, 1m:24.345. There weer only five drivers out, two of them been the WilliamsF1 drivers. Fisichella would be the last driver to take to the track. Mark's first lap would see him in fifteenth, 1m:26.063. Nico would pit while Raikkonen was back out. Fisichella's first lap would see him move into sixth, 1m:23.880. Mark was now in thirteenth, 1m:25.354. Heidfeld was now in seventh and Nico now down in eighth. Fisichella would move to the top of the times with a 1m:21.859. Massa was back out. Mark was now in twelfth. Kimi was now in third, 1m:23.359 while Michael was back out joining team-mate Massa.

Alonso had also come back out and was looking to improve from his sixth. His first lap would see him move into second, 1m:21.870. Michael was now in third, 1m:22.435 moving ahead of Kimi. Massa was now in fourth pushing Kimi down further. With sixteen minutes left the majority of drivers were out on the track. Villeneuve was now in seventh, 1m:23.738. Button would move up to now be in fourth, 1m:22.596. Nico was now in eleventh while Mark was still down in fifteenth.

Both Fisichella and Raikkonen had pitted. They would be joined by Alonso and Button. Barrichello was down in a disappointing nineteenth. Nico was back out on the track while Mark had pitted. Monteiro was doing a great job for MF1 been in sixth and ahead of both of the McLaren's. Most of the drivers had returned to their pits to make their final preparations for their final runs. Only Montoya and Nico were out on the track with eight minutes remaining. Montoya would have a moment at Copse that would see him run off the track. Both Michael and Fisichella were back out, as was Mark.

With both WilliamsF1 drivers outside the top ten could they turn things around in the final minutes. Button and Villeneuve were back out as the track became very busy. Nico would pit. His time of 1m:24.010 was 2.1 seconds slower than Fisichella's. Coulthard would move into fifth, 1m:22.681. Michael would go fastest with a 1m:20.919. Villeneuve was now in fourth, 1m:22.229, as all the driver made their final runs prior to qualifying. Heidfeld was now in second, 1m:21.361. Barrichello had improved his times greatly moving into fifth, 1m:22.023.

Nico and mark were now down in sixteenth and nineteenth places. Scott Speed was in ninth. As the session came to an end Mark would improve his time with a 1m:23.964 but was still down in seventeenth. Massa would move into third as the drivers would return to their pits. Kimi would stop his car on his in lap. The order was Michael Schumacher, Heidfeld, Massa, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Alonso, Barrichello, Villeneuve, Liuzzi, and Scott Speed making up the top ten. With Mark and Nico down in seventeenth and eighteenth things were not looking too encouraging for the WilliamsF1 team.

 
Pos  Driver        Team                     Time     Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:20.919 13
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:21.361 13
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:21.633 15
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:21.771 12
 5.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:21.859 12
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:21.870 13
 7.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:22.023 12
 8.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:22.229 14
 9.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:22.456 18
10.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:22.532 14
11.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:22.596 15
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:22.681 15
13.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:22.812 19
14.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:22.921 14
15.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:23.412 7
16.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:23.459 13
17.  Webber        WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:23.964 12
18.  Rosberg       WilliamsF1-Cosworth (B)  1:24.010 11
19.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:24.386 12
20.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:27.229 10
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:27.525 12
22.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  No time  3  

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