Saturday, April 22, 2006
# posted by Rich @ 6:35 AM
San Marino Friday practice 2: report
Friday practice 2 for the San Marino Grand Prix, whilst in itself not unexpected, turned up a couple of surpries. Surprise is probably a bit too strong of a word, but for the first time so far this season, the Friday drivers did not top the timesheets - that honour went to Fernando Alonso, who set a time of 1:25.043. Behind him, three tenths slower, was Michael Schumacher, who will be looking to plant his flag this wekend in front of the Tifosi.
Behind them were themore usual faces of Kubica and Davidson, with the rest of the top ten rounded out by Massa, Fisichella, Trulli, Wurz, Montoya, and Heidfeld; Button was 11th fastest.
Other than that, there were no real surprises as the teams worked through their usual programs. There also seemed to be much less drama on track, despite the fact that several part of the circuit have been resurfaced, and the Variante Alta has been reprofiled to make it much tighter and slower. Indeed, several drivers had minor offs at the aforementioned corner, mostly ending up straightlining it.
I have a theory that there was much less nonsense than we have seen at previous races (especially Australia) because it is very familiar territory for the teams and drivers, and the grip levels are a more known quantity.
It didn't stop Yuje Ide from chucking his car at the scenery though. He had three offs (that I know about) and seemed rather ragged - he is supposedly racing for his seat this weekend and, as predicted, has been rather ragged. Let's hope he can keep it away from the Tamburello wall.
So it appears that the fight is going to be between Alonso and Michael. Last year saw a classic fight between the two, and on that occasion it was Alonso who came out on top and in the process he demonstrated to the world that he wasworld champion material. Will it Michael's turn to return the favour? We'll have to wait and see.
Behind them were themore usual faces of Kubica and Davidson, with the rest of the top ten rounded out by Massa, Fisichella, Trulli, Wurz, Montoya, and Heidfeld; Button was 11th fastest.
Other than that, there were no real surprises as the teams worked through their usual programs. There also seemed to be much less drama on track, despite the fact that several part of the circuit have been resurfaced, and the Variante Alta has been reprofiled to make it much tighter and slower. Indeed, several drivers had minor offs at the aforementioned corner, mostly ending up straightlining it.
I have a theory that there was much less nonsense than we have seen at previous races (especially Australia) because it is very familiar territory for the teams and drivers, and the grip levels are a more known quantity.
It didn't stop Yuje Ide from chucking his car at the scenery though. He had three offs (that I know about) and seemed rather ragged - he is supposedly racing for his seat this weekend and, as predicted, has been rather ragged. Let's hope he can keep it away from the Tamburello wall.
So it appears that the fight is going to be between Alonso and Michael. Last year saw a classic fight between the two, and on that occasion it was Alonso who came out on top and in the process he demonstrated to the world that he wasworld champion material. Will it Michael's turn to return the favour? We'll have to wait and see.
Labels: Formula 1, Grand Prix
If the fonts on this page look blocky and naff, it's probably because you are using Internet Explorer, which currently does not display antialiased (cleartype) fonts consistently when alpha transparency is used. I suggest you upgrade to Safari, Camino, Opera, or Firefox. While you're at it, get a Mac.
