By Huw Alban
May 25 2006

A cautious but encouraging first free practice session for Midland F1 at Monaco this morning. All three drivers completed their laps without error or mechanical problems, leaving them free to concentrate on their setup and tyre choices for the race on Sunday.

The first 15 minutes of free practice were relatively quiet for Midland F1 with all three drivers completing installation laps only.

A quick question to our sources in the team garage revealed that the team wanted to make the most of track time, but take things steady so as not to risk pranging the car into those unforgiving barriers.

Giorgio Mondini was the first Midland F1 driver to stretch his legs on the track, with 45 minutes of the session remaining. In an aticle on the official Midland F1 website, Tiago Monteiro stated that "it’s important to build up your speed gradually on this course," and Giorgio did just that. His first lap of 1.26.403 was less than impressive, but over the course of the next 9 laps he gradually improved to an eventual 1.21.304.

By now we were half way through the session, and just as I was writting a quick email to the team asking about whether the race drivers were going to get to have a go Tiago Monteiro took to the track, followed a lap later by Christijan Albers. Although over a smaller number of laps, both drivers exhibited the same characteristic as Giorgio by starting slowly and building up the speed. They both seemed very strong in sector 2, but appeared to struggle in sectors 1 and 3.

They were joined a few laps in by Giorgio Mondini, who improved on his previous best to 1.20.751.

With 16 minutes of the session to go all three drivers pitted one after the other. Tiago had managed a personal best of 1.19.730, and Christijan a 1.20.670.

I have to admit, I thought that was going to be it from Midland, but 5 minutes later all three were out again almost with the track to themselves. Giorgio managed an almost immediate improvement, but both the race drivers appeared to be struggling to better their previous times. I had to remind myself that the T-car has use of all its seven sets of tyres today so no doubt Giorgio was running on new rubber and the two race drivers on older tyres. All three drivers ran right up until the end of the session, with Christijan Albers also managing a small improvement in his best time.

Overall, I felt that it was an encouraging first practice session with the potential for more to follow in the second session.

Full timesheets from the first free practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix:

1 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:16.712
2 Anthony Davidson Honda 1:16.872
3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:16.888
4 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:16.973
5 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.458
6 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW 1:17.869
7 Alexander Wurz Williams-Cosworth 1:17.949
8 Jenson Button Honda 1:18.329
9 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:18.394
10 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:18.406
11 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 1:18.447
12 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:18.480
13 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:18.571
14 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:18.695
15 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:18.703
16 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:19.021
17 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW 1:19.246
18 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari 1:19.543
19 Neel Jani STR-Cosworth 1:19.651
20 Giorgio Mondini MF1-Toyota 1:19.669
21 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:19.730
22 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:19.857
23 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:20.137
24 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:20.552
25 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:21.144
26 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda 1:21.594
27 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 2:06.592

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