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For the BMW
WilliamsF1 team the opening Friday practice for the 2005 German Grand Prix
would again see both Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber set times that would see them down
the order in fifteenth and sixteenth positions respectively. This was a
repeat of their opening Friday practice at the British Grand Prix.
Unfortunately things did not get any better for the team at Silverstone, so
will the results be the same at Hockenheim?
 The next round of the 2005 Formula One championship is the German Grand Prix
at the Hockenheimring. Prior to this weekend Minardi had replaced Patrick
Friesacher with ex Jordan driver Robert Doornbos. Replacing Doornbos at
Jordan was Danish driver Nicolas Kiesa.
The opening practice session would get under way with Nicolas Kiesa the
first driver out onto the track, joined by McLaren's Alex Wurz. Theis pair would
be joined by several other drivers including the Toyota's of Zonta and Ralf
Schumacher and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. They would complete their
installation laps and return to their pits.
Toyota's Ricardo Zonta would be the first driver to set a time with a lap
time of 1m:24.730. Joining Zonta was McLaren's Friday driver Alex Wurz. Zonta would
improve his time with a 1m:22.240 but Wurz would easily beat his time with a
1m:19.122.
With fifteen minutes 0f the session run Wurz had improved with a 1m:17.376,
while Zonta was down to a 1m:18.805. Jenson Button would start a lap but
would pull into the pitlane. Red Bull's Tonio Liuzzi was out and would start
his first lap.
Wurz would improve with a time of 1m:17.199. Kiesa's first lap would be a
1m:25.664. Liuzzi would se a time of 1m:20.573. He would improve with a
1m:19.352. With nearly twenty minutes of the session run both Doornbos and
Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan would come out.
Karthikeyan would set a time of 1m:24.645 to see him move into fifth. The
order was Wurz followed by Zonta, Liuzzi, Karthikeyan, Kiesa, and Doornbos.
Minardi's Christijan Albers and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher would come out
for their first runs. Liuzzi would move into second with a 1m:18.429, while
Michael was in third with a 1m:18.700. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello would
also come out.
Michael would improve his time with a 1m:17.635, +0.5 behind Wurz. Zonta was
in third and Albers sixth. Zonta would move ahead of Michael with a
1m:17.551. He would improve further with a time of 1m:17.096 to go fastest.
His next lap would see him set a time of 1m:16.657. In response to this Wurz
would return to the track with half of the session run.
 Wurz's first lap would see him set a time of 1m:16.857 to move into second.
His next lap would see a time of 1m:16.631 from Wurz to move ahead of Zonta. He
would improve further with a time of 1m:16.410. Jordan's Tiago Monteiro was
now in sixth with a time of 1m:19.971.
For the first time in the session both Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld would
take to the track. They were joined by Raikkonen. Again Wurz would set a quicker
time, a lap of 1m:15.859. Mark Webber's first lap would be a 1m:18.811, good
only for sixth. Kimi would move into second with a time of 1m:16.560. Nick
Heidfeld sets a time of 1m:20.416 to be in ninth.
As the session wound down the track would see drivers flood out of the pit
lane. BAR's Takuma Sato was in fifth with a time of 1m:17.929. Mark would take
this spot from Sato with a time of 1m:17.923, but Sato would move ahead of Mark
with a time of 1m:16.825. Zonta would move ahead of Wurz with a time of
1m:15.518, to be fastest. Jenson Button was sixth on his first lap with a
time of 1m:17.887. Only the Sauber's and Renault's had yet to set a time.
Sato was in fourth with a 1m:16.795.
With twenty minutes of the session remaining the order was Zonta followed by
Wurz, Raikkonen, Sato, Montoya, Button, and Michael Schumacher. Button was
able to move into sixth with a time of 1m:16.849. But it would be Alex Wurz
who would set a time that would put him a second up on Zonta, a 1m:14.496.
Alex would lower this further now setting a time of 1m:14.277. Michael
Schumacher was now in fourth with a 1m:16.259. Button was in third with a
1m:15.851.
As for the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers things were not looking encouraging but it
was early days. Mark was in sixteenth with a time of 1m:17.850. Kimi would
take the third spot from Jenson with a time of 1m:15.634. Team-mate Montoya
was in fifth. Mark would improve with a 1m:17.689, while Nick was able to
beat his team-mate with a time of 1m:17.665. Red Bull's Christian Klien
would have an off with three minutes of the session remaining when he made a
error at turn nine but was able to return to the track
So with the end of the session the order was Zonta, Raikkonen, Button,
Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Barrichello, Liuzzi, Sato, and Ralf Schumacher.
Nick and Mark were in fifteenth and sixteenth positions. Neither Renault
driver was to set a time in the session. |
