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| German GP 27th - 30th July 2006 - Friday Free Practice 1.2 Report |
Length:
4.574 km |
| A rain shower prior to the start of second practice at Hockenheim put paid to any significant early running, and left Alex Wurz in the Williams circulating on his own for much of the opening half hour.
It was when Marcus Winkelhock, driving the Midland M16 today, suddenly put in a lap in the low 1.20’s that the rest of the pit lane knew a true dry line had appeared, and suddenly the circuit was full of cars looking for a time. Yet again young Robert Kubica took the top spot, this time from Michael Schumacher who put in a surprising 14 laps, double what he normally runs in these sessions, to trail the BMW by three-tenths of a second. A late surge by Robert Doornbos in the Red Bull RB2 put him in third spot, and these three were the only men to get below the 1:17 barrier. McLaren, looking for a good result here in Mercedes-Benz land, managed fourth (Kimi Raikkonen) and eighth (Pedro de la Rosa) with their fastest time a good half second behind Schumacher – more must be found if they are to compete tomorrow and Sunday. Quiet by their usual standards were the two Renaults, fresh from the escalating ‘mass damper’ saga, with Giancarlo Fisichella 11th and Fernando Alonso 15th – again, more is expected of these two tomorrow. Honda’s Anthony Davidson was the quickest of the trio, his time good enough for sixth and just behind the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa, while Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button in ninth and tenth indicates that progress may well have been made in the troubled Honda camp. Comfortably in the top ten, in seventh and a mere two tenths behind Raikkonen, was Mark Webber, the Australian the only Williams runner this afternoon as Nico Rosberg damaged his car badly in this morning’s first session. The Toyota’s of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher, 12th and 13th respectively, continue the indifferent form that is often not representative of their true pace, while Marcus Winkelhock put in a fine lap to tail them in the MF1 Racing M16, easily ahead of team mates Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro in 22nd and 23rd positions. With Alexander Wurz in 16th having run a massive 36 laps, the next four places belong to the Red Bull family, Christian Klien (RB2), Tonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso), Neel Jani (Toro Rosso) and David Coulthard in the remaining RB2 all ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber. Jacques Villeneuve in the other BMW finished in 24th, Scott Speed’s Toro Rosso 25th and the two ‘new’ Super Aguri SA06 cars in 26th and 27th for Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto. For the record, Sato was a mere three seconds slower than the quickest car, a vast improvement on the old machine. The scene is set, then, for a weekend of political wrangling, appeals and counter appeals, and a practice session and qualifying tomorrow, plus a race on Sunday, to make up the column inches. |
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