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| Japanese GP 5th - 8th October 2006 - Saturday Free Practice 2.1 Report |
Length:
5.807 km |
| Practice three at Suzuka was all about Schumacher.
The brothers Michael & Ralf dominated Saturday’s opening run at the Japanese Grand Prix to finish in the top two positions. It was the latter who looked like the unlikely pace setter as in difficult conditions – strong winds, not the rain expected – the German held P1 for a majority of the session. However in typical ‘Schumacher fashion’, Ralf (1:31.863) was pipped by the elder of the two siblings (1:30.653) by a handsome margin of 1.2 seconds. In a reversal of fortunes from China, the conditions in central Japan significantly favoured the Bridgestone runners. The highest placed Michelin-show car was Jenson Button’s Honda (1:32.310) in third. The Briton struggled to get within half a second of Ralf’s time and was never in the same race as Michael at the top. Michael’s world championship foe, Fernando Alonso (1:32.555), sat outside the top ten for a long time and only recovered to fifth late in the session. His teammate Giancarlo Fisichella (1:32.527) sat one position ahead in fourth however he wasn’t a whole lot more comfortable with a time less then a tenth of a second quicker. BMW continued to impress with Nick Heidfeld (1:32.590) in sixth. And Williams’ Nico Rosberg was also in fine form to secure eighth (1:32.730). McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen (1:32.590) was between those men in seventh, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa (1:32.790) just behind in tenth. It must be noted that the results are far from conclusive. There is no doubt that Michael and Ralf coped well in difficult circumstances however the advantage they had was certainly a surprise. Adding further doubt to the minds of the spectators was the fact that both men’s teammates’ were significantly slower. Massa was, of course, in tenth, and Jarno Trulli in the second Toyota was all the way down in 20th, 3.5 seconds off the pace. |
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