Friday, March 10, 2006
# posted by Rich @ 12:06 PM
Bahrain Friday practice 2: report
As expected, running by the top teams and drivers was quite limited in Prac 1 to conserve engines. Also few people seemed willing to go out on the dusty track. Jenson Button apparently didn't even bother putting his race suit on. Prac 2, on the other hand, saw basically all cars on track.
The session was relatively light on excitement, but there were some incidents. Many people were having trouble in the turn 9/10 complex. Among them Massa, who managed to flat-spot his left-front tyre down to the canvas. The Pole Kubica had a left-front tyre problem as well, forcing him through a gravel trap. Kubica was rather quick though, posting the tenth fastest time (1:33.2). Liuzzi had an impressive spin, performing a near perfect 360, and kept going. Winklehock also had a spin in the MF1 (a car that Steve Matchett called the flatpack racing car - a pun on MFI perhaps?), but was much less graceful! Rosberg was impressively smooth in the Williams, but he needs to find some more speed, although this is probably more to do with the Williams chassis than anything else.
There was also some attrition - the first car to stop out on track was Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren! It wasn't obvious what the problem was, as there was no blue-smoke-of-death, and the marshalls were able to push the car away freely. This could be disastrous for Raikkonen's race, and it may also be a sign of things to come. Trulli was another person whose car slowed to a halt with no real signs of trouble. Ide's Aguri ground to a halt in a gravel trap - not surprising given their almost total lack of testing and late entry into the 2006 championship.
In terms of performance, though, Davidson began the year where he left off - top of the time sheets with a time of 1:31.3, only 1.1 s slower than the lap record. Wurz set a fast time late in the session to go third (1:31.7). Ominously, the Ferraris were quick. Schumacher was second with a 1:31.7, Massa was 0.5 s behind Schumacher in 4th. Alonso set the fifth fastest time (1:32.5), but perhaps the result that will ruffle the most feathers was the fact that Liuzzi was sixth fastest in the V10 powered Toro Rosso (1:32.7). It will be interesting to see how this situation develops.
Steve Matchett made the excellent point that all the teams, except Toro Rosso have developed their V8 engines, with a total cost of around a billion dollars. Toro Rosso, Matchett estimates, have a $10 piece of carbon fibre in the air box to act as a restricter. Talk about reducing costs...
Further down the order, the Super Aguris were, as expected, at the bottom; the Toyotas of Ralf and Trulli were 22nd and 24th respectively; Barrichello was 18th with a time of 1:34.4, just over 1.1 s slower than Button, who was 9th fastest; Villeneuve was 25th, with a time of 1:36.2 - his team mate Heidfeld posted a 1:33.8, which was good enough for 14th.
Regardless of the times, it was good to hear those F1 engines again - the V8s did not sound as feeble as I feared, Plus it was good to hear the Speed Channel commentary team again. The most welcome feature of Speed Channel's coverage of practice was their new title sequence, specifically the audio clips from classic commentaries. It is nice to know that the first voice of the new F1 season that I heard was Murray Walker (commentating on the 1969 Italian GP)!
It will be interesting to see what the rest of the weekend brings, especially qualifying.
The session was relatively light on excitement, but there were some incidents. Many people were having trouble in the turn 9/10 complex. Among them Massa, who managed to flat-spot his left-front tyre down to the canvas. The Pole Kubica had a left-front tyre problem as well, forcing him through a gravel trap. Kubica was rather quick though, posting the tenth fastest time (1:33.2). Liuzzi had an impressive spin, performing a near perfect 360, and kept going. Winklehock also had a spin in the MF1 (a car that Steve Matchett called the flatpack racing car - a pun on MFI perhaps?), but was much less graceful! Rosberg was impressively smooth in the Williams, but he needs to find some more speed, although this is probably more to do with the Williams chassis than anything else.
There was also some attrition - the first car to stop out on track was Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren! It wasn't obvious what the problem was, as there was no blue-smoke-of-death, and the marshalls were able to push the car away freely. This could be disastrous for Raikkonen's race, and it may also be a sign of things to come. Trulli was another person whose car slowed to a halt with no real signs of trouble. Ide's Aguri ground to a halt in a gravel trap - not surprising given their almost total lack of testing and late entry into the 2006 championship.
In terms of performance, though, Davidson began the year where he left off - top of the time sheets with a time of 1:31.3, only 1.1 s slower than the lap record. Wurz set a fast time late in the session to go third (1:31.7). Ominously, the Ferraris were quick. Schumacher was second with a 1:31.7, Massa was 0.5 s behind Schumacher in 4th. Alonso set the fifth fastest time (1:32.5), but perhaps the result that will ruffle the most feathers was the fact that Liuzzi was sixth fastest in the V10 powered Toro Rosso (1:32.7). It will be interesting to see how this situation develops.
Steve Matchett made the excellent point that all the teams, except Toro Rosso have developed their V8 engines, with a total cost of around a billion dollars. Toro Rosso, Matchett estimates, have a $10 piece of carbon fibre in the air box to act as a restricter. Talk about reducing costs...
Further down the order, the Super Aguris were, as expected, at the bottom; the Toyotas of Ralf and Trulli were 22nd and 24th respectively; Barrichello was 18th with a time of 1:34.4, just over 1.1 s slower than Button, who was 9th fastest; Villeneuve was 25th, with a time of 1:36.2 - his team mate Heidfeld posted a 1:33.8, which was good enough for 14th.
Regardless of the times, it was good to hear those F1 engines again - the V8s did not sound as feeble as I feared, Plus it was good to hear the Speed Channel commentary team again. The most welcome feature of Speed Channel's coverage of practice was their new title sequence, specifically the audio clips from classic commentaries. It is nice to know that the first voice of the new F1 season that I heard was Murray Walker (commentating on the 1969 Italian GP)!
It will be interesting to see what the rest of the weekend brings, especially qualifying.
Labels: Bahrain, Formula 1, Grand Prix
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