Turkey: No Turkish Delights in First Practice

By Karl King
August 19 2005

The fastest face in roasting Turkey today was Pedro de la Rosa who beat team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to the fastest spot in free practice. On an unfamiliar track Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta managed to set the fourth fastest lap of the morning as Webber banged in a surprise lap at the end to grab third.

The dusty track proved a challenge for the drivers, as the Toyota aces, who we saw pictures of whizzing around the track on their stickered-up scooters yesterday, took it easy to look after their 105's. Schumacher and Trulli set the twelfth and thirteenth fastest laps respectively, sandwiched between Ferrari 2006-bound Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld.

Jap rivals Honda powered their B.A.R drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato to set 5th and 9th respectively. Let's hope they get their tyre choice wrong...again!

Less interesting news time allows me to tell you that Toccacelo made his Minardi debut today and finished over a second behind new-regular driver Robert Doornbos.

Enough time for a little laugh to finish off todays news: Seven-times World Champ Michael Schumacher, and Zero-times World Champ Rubens Barrichello both managed to send their Ferrari's off into the kitty-litter. Unfortunately they manged to get them back on track again, but does this show a strain in the team's ability to master a new track.

Don't tell anyone, but secretly, we hope so!

Times from Friday FP1:

1.  DE LA ROSA    McLaren    1m27.882s

2.  RAIKKONEN     McLaren    1m28.453s

3.  WEBBER        Williams   1m28.765s

4.  ZONTA         Toyota     1m28.810s

5.  BUTTON        BAR        1m28.968s

6.  MONTOYA       McLaren    1m29.183s

7.  ALONSO        Renault    1m29.283s

8.  M.SCHUMACHER  Ferrari    1m29.766s

9.  SATO          BAR        1m30.050s

10. FISICHELLA    Renault    1m30.106s

11. MASSA         Sauber     1m30.368s

12. R.SCHUMACHER  Toyota     1m30.563s

13. TRULLI        Toyota     1m30.785s

14. HEIDFELD      Williams   1m30.847s

15. VILLENEUVE    Sauber     1m30.847s

16. KLIEN         Red Bull   1m31.008s
17. BARRICHELLO   Ferrari    1m31.294s

18. COULTHARD     Red Bull   1m31.306s

19. LIUZZI        Red Bull   1m31.353s

20. MONTEIRO      Jordan     1m32.147s

21. KIESA         Jordan     1m32.501s

22. KARTHIKEYAN   Jordan     1m32.886s

23. ALBERS        Minardi    1m33.474s

24. DOORNBOS      Minardi    1m35.367s

25. TOCCACELO     Minardi    1m36.411s