France: Practice – A positive start for Toyota

By Nick Sparkes
July 14 2006

The opening two practice sessions for this weekends French Grand Prix were positive and encouraging for the Panasonic Toyota team. Their two drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli made it through both sessions with no issues and not that far away from the leading pace.

Friday – First Session

As the norm it was the third drivers who made an appearance near the top of the time sheets, with many of the big names preserving tyres and engines. Robert Kubica was fastest for BMW Sauber, the team featured their new vertical wings on the nose cone which have interested many in the paddock. Anthony Davidson was second for Honda whilst teammate Jenson Button was the fastest race driver in third, a mere second behind Davidson.

Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher was fourth having completed only six laps, whilst teammate Jarno Trulli was twelfth with seven laps. The Italian is sporting a new helmet design in honour of his country winning the world cup, this didn’t stop Jarno from making a small visit to the gravel trap early on.

Friday – Second Session

Another hot and humid sessions greeted the teams with most of the drivers completing a healthy number of laps before the end of the day. Robert Kubica was again fastest, half a second clear of championship leader Fernando Alonso. Anthony Davidson who completed the most laps with thirty-seven was third, just ahead of Alex Wurz in fourth.

Toyota again continued to feature well in the session with Ralf Schumacher ninth and Jarno Trulli eleventh, completing twenty one and twenty three laps respectively. The pair finished ahead of the McLaren duo who have encountered a strange week with the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya. Pedro de la Rose who has replaced him finished twenty second whilst Kimi Raikkonen was fifteenth.