Suffering from Understeer
By Karl King
May 5 2006
Formula 1 arrived on German soil today for the Friday Practice Sessions prior to the Grand Prix officially classified as the European GP at the Nurburgring. A British team topped the timesheets in both sessions, but from a McLaren fan's perspective, it was the wrong one...
It was Alexander Wurx, ex-McLaren tester, who put the Grove-based Williams squad on the top of the timesheets in both FP1 and FP2.
The McLaren pair, however were languishing further down the timesheets, with Kimi Raikkonen circling the track five times in the morning, and setting the eighth fastest time. Juan Pablo Montoya completed only an installation lap, thus not setting a time.
|
Pos |
Driver |
Constructor |
Time |
Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Wurz | Williams F1 | 1m32.079 | 20 |
| 2 | Anthony Davidson | Honda Racing | 1m32.399 | 29 |
| 3 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1m32.852 | 22 |
| 4 | Michael Schumacher | Scuderia Ferrari | 1m32.858 | 4 |
| 5 | Robert Doornbos | Red Bull Racing | 1m32.944 | 19 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | Honda Racing | 1m33.635 | 7 |
| 7 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda Racing | 1m34.213 | 6 |
| 8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Team McLaren Mercedes | 1m34.402 | 5 |
| 9 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 1m34.995 | 6 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | MF1 Racing | 1m35.332 | 21 |
| 11 | Neel Jani | Toro Rosso | 1m35.365 | 19 |
| 12 | Scott Speed | Toro Rosso | 1m35.612 | 8 |
| 13 | Christijan Albers | MF1 Racing | 1m35.985 | 8 |
| 14 | Tiago Monteiro | MF1 Racing | 1m36.062 | 10 |
| 15 | Takuma Sato | Super Aguri | 1m37.817 | 20 |
| 16 | Franck Montagny | Super Aguri | 1m37.933 | 16 |
During the afternoon session, twelve more drivers were added into the equation. Embarrassingly, two of the three MF1 drivers were ahead of Kimi and Juan Pablo, who were thirteenth and seventeenth fastest respectively.
|
Pos |
Driver |
Constructor |
Time |
Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Wurz | Williams F1 | 1:32.675 | 27 |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:33.579 | 14 |
| 3 | Michael Schumacher | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:33.619 | 14 |
| 4 | Robert Doornbos | Red Bull Racing | 1:33.799 | 25 |
| 5 | Anthony Davidson | Honda Racing | 1:33.870 | 29 |
| 6 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 1:33.883 | 19 |
| 7 | Jenson Button | Honda Racing | 1:33.920 | 12 |
| 8 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:33.991 | 30 |
| 9 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 1:34.030 | 19 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | MF1 Racing | 1:34.179 | 23 |
| 11 | Nico Rosberg | Williams F1 | 1:34.215 | 19 |
| 12 | Christijan Albers | MF1 Racing | 1:34.472 | 23 |
| 13 | Kimi Raikkonen | Team McLaren Mercedes | 1:34.536 | 13 |
| 14 | Felipe Massa | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:34.546 | 18 |
| 15 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda Racing | 1:34.631 | 11 |
| 16 | Mark Webber | Williams F1 | 1:34.825 | 14 |
| 17 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team McLaren Mercedes | 1:34.968 | 14 |
| 18 | Christian Klien | Red Bull Racing | 1:35.066 | 19 |
| 19 | David Coulthard | Red Bull Racing | 1:35.241 | 14 |
| 20 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:35.308 | 12 |
| 21 | Tonio Luizzi | Toro Rosso | 1:35.406 | 19 |
| 22 | Neel Jani | Toro Rosso | 1:35.479 | 26 |
| 23 | Scott Speed | Toro Rosso | 1:35.669 | 21 |
| 24 | Jacques Villeneuve | BMW Sauber | 1:35.688 | 12 |
| 25 | Tiago Monteiro | MF1 Racing | 1:35.902 | 18 |
| 26 | Takuma Sato | Super Aguri | 1:36.255 | 25 |
| 27 | Franck Montagny | Super Aguri | 1:36.665 | 16 |
| 28 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | No time | 5 |
Both drivers were complaining of understeer during the sessions, due to a lack of grip, which the drivers, and Ron Dennis, are optimistic that it should be sorted by tomorrow's qualifying and the race on Sunday.