Length: 4.574 km
Number of Laps: 67 (306.458 Km)
Best Lap: K. Raikkonen - 1'13''780 (2004, Mclaren)
Record Pole: M. Schumacher - 1'13''306 (2004, Ferrari)
2005 Pole: K. Raikkonen - 1'14''320 (Mclaren)
2005 Podium: F. Alonso - JP. Montoya - J. Button

Renault presented the spare R26 to the scrutineers with the recently banned ‘mass damper’ system in place. The scrutineers failed the car on the ground that it carried an illegal part, but the Stewards, having been provided by Renault with evidence to the contrary, ruled that the system was legal, after all! Renault put the dampers back on the two race cars, and all was well. What remains to be seen is the future ramifications of this decision, and we will keep you updated as we hear.

On track it was the usual trio of Alex Wurz in the Williams, Anthony Davidson in the Honda and Robert Kubica in the BMW who traded top spot, all three re-inforcing the widely held belief that they are worthy of race drives, and finishing in that order.

Wurz’s time, a 1:16.349, was helped by the Williams astonishing pace through the last sector, and was just two tenths ahead of the Honda and a full second ahead of the BMW.

With the last few minutes of the session seeing a flurry of activity on the track Jenson Button put his Honda in fourth place, just ahead of Robert Doornbos in the Red Bull and the other Honda of Rubens Barrichello. The two Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella popped into the top ten, too, with leisurely attempts.

Worthy of note was the debut of the new Super Aguri SA06 which, in the hands of Takuma Sato, managed a low 1:20 lap – under four seconds off the top spot – an impressive improvement for the young team, easily faster than both Midland race drivers and mixing with the Toro Rosso’s. New boy Sakon Yamamoto took things easy, yet finished just a second down on Sato.

So, a typically action-free first session, with the main talking point being who will, if anyone, protest the Renaults should they run with the ‘are they/aren’t they?’ banned mass damper system.