Trouble free day for WilliamsF1 at Monza

It was very much business as usual for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team, with both drivers focussing on doing set-up work. This is a regular practice during Friday's practice sessions. Together, Ralf and Juan Pablo would complete sixty two laps, this is far more than a whole race distance at Monza. This was a satisfying start for the team. The extensive set-up work that has been carried out should turn out to be useful for the remainder of the weekend.

Tyre supplier Michelin seems to have brought a very good tyre to Monza, with eight of the top ten drivers are using Michelins.

Ralf commented on his practice by saying: "My practice session went quite well. There is still some work to do to optimise the car, but overall I am confident. A lot will depend on our tyre choice. This track is also hard on the brakes. Before the first chicane we brake down from around 350 km/h to approximately 70 km/h. For the drivers this is less extreme than it might appear from the outside. Now we are working on the set-up for qualifying."

Again Michael Schumacher would finish the day quickest improving his morning mark by four tenths. He would finish ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello, with Rubens best lap been a 1m:22.658, two tenths slower than Michael.

McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen was third with a 1m:23.016, which was just five tenths slower than Schumacher’s fastest time. Jaguar continued to show good form with Eddie Irvine fourth.

Raikkonen commented: "Two uneventful sessions for me where we worked to find an ideal set up and as I didn't do the test here last week I reacquainted myself with the Monza track. We made a lot of progress and obviously I plan to be as fast as possible tomorrow, but whether I can keep third place we will have to wait and see."

Toyota's Mika Salo was sixth, the Finn would improve his morning time by nearly two seconds. He was followed by Ralf, Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa, and the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button.

Giancarlo Fisichella was eleventh, followed by BAR’s Jacques Villeneuve, Sauber’s Felipe Massa, Takuma Sato, Olivier Panis, and David Coulthard who encountered technical problems and was restricted to just three laps. Nick Heidfeld was down in seventeenth, followed by Allan McNish who was also hit by mechanical problems, and the Minardi's of Mark Webber and Alex Yoong. Yoong was nearly four seconds slower than Michael Schumacher.

Despite having dropped down the times it was an encouraging first day at Monza for the BMW WilliamsF1 team.