Paul Ricard 18/05/06 – Toyota 7th and 11th fastest


By Nick Sparkes
May 19 2006

On the third day at Paul Ricard Jarno and Ralf left the circuit as they were replaced by Zonta and Panis. The Paul Ricard circuit was also changed so the teams could prepare their cars for the Canadian Grand Prix. That theme stayed throughout the day with Canada’s Jacque Villeneuve going fastest. Villeneuve completed a healthy 125 laps, finishing 0.4 seconds ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault. McLaren showed an improvement with Pedro de la Rosa finishing third.

Ricardo Zonta finished seventh, almost a second behind Villeneuve. Olivier Panis in the second TF106B was eleventh, almost two seconds behind the fastest man. Between them were the McLaren of Paffett, the Red Bull of Doornbos and the Toro Rosso of Jani.

Felipe Massa completed a mere three laps before his engine went bang, with the team leaving the circuit early as a result.

1 J. Villeneuve BMW Michelin 01:25.379 125
2 H. Kovalainen Renault Michelin 01:25.736 121
3 P. de la Rosa McLaren Michelin 01:25.834 120
4 R. Kubica BMW Michelin 01:25.931 97
5 F. Alonso Renault Michelin 01:26.033 63
6 D. Coulthard Red Bull Michelin 01:26.172 91
7 R. Zonta Toyota Bridgestone 01:26.261 101
8 G. Paffett McLaren Michelin 01:26.443 99
9 R. Doornbos Red Bull Michelin 01:26.498 44
10 N. Jani Scuderia Toro Rosso Michelin 01:26.668 103
11 O. Panis Toyota Bridgestone 01:27.037 82
12 F. Massa Ferrari Bridgestone 00:00.00 3

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