Europe: Practice - Toyota at opposite ends
By Nick Sparkes
May 6 2006
The final practice session before this afternoons qualifying hour sprang a couple of surprises. Christian Klein’s Red Bull Racing and Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso all headed the leader board at some stage during the session, but in the end Michael Schumacher and Ferrari stamped their authority.
Saturday – Third Session
On another sunny day, all of the 22 drivers took part in the final practice session. Toyota looked to be struggling from the word go, with near driver looking promising until Ralf Schumacher popped in a quick lap to go third fastest. Jarno Trulli was much further back, and after missing out on valuable track time yesterday, the Italian looks to be on his back foot.
The Ferrari’s look to be the team to beat, with the pair over half a second clear of their nearest rivals. In fact the midfield look to be very close with 6th to 16th covered by under a second making this afternoons knockout qualifying session look very close indeed. Jacques Villeneuve put in some impressive times to finish fourth, finishing ahead of both Renault’s, Honda’s and McLaren’s who look to have their work cut out if they are to challenge for pole this afternoon.
| 1 | M. Schumacher |  |
Ferrari |  |
1:30.788 | 12 |
| 2 | F. Massa |  |
Ferrari | |
1:31.093 | 10 |
| 3 | R. Schumacher | |
Toyota | |
1:31.395 | 21 |
| 4 | J. Villeneuve |  |
BMW |  |
1:31.531 | 13 |
| 5 | G. Fisichella |  |
Renault | |
1:31.584 | 12 |
| 6 | F. Alonso |  |
Renault | |
1:31.807 | 14 |
| 7 | J. Button |  |
Honda | |
1:32.104 | 16 |
| 8 | C. Klien |  |
Red Bull | |
1:32.197 | 13 |
| 9 | V. Liuzzi | |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
1:32.290 | 17 |
| 10 | K. Räikkönen |  |
McLaren | |
1:32.320 | 11 |
| 11 | N. Rosberg | |
Williams | |
1:32.459 | 15 |
| 12 | S. Speed |  |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
1:32.505 | 18 |
| 13 | R. Barrichello | |
Honda | |
1:32.534 | 18 |
| 14 | M. Webber |  |
Williams | |
1:32.711 | 16 |
| 15 | N. Heidfeld | |
BMW | |
1:32.773 | 16 |
| 16 | D. Coulthard | |
Red Bull | |
1:32.779 | 15 |
| 17 | JP. Montoya |  |
McLaren | |
1:32.989 | 12 |
| 18 | J. Trulli | |
Toyota | |
1:33.120 | 24 |
| 19 | T. Monteiro |  |
Midland F1 | |
1:33.744 | 19 |
| 20 | C. Albers |  |
Midland F1 | |
1:34.469 | 21 |
| 21 | F. Montagny |  |
Super Aguri | |
1:35.706 | 20 |
| 22 | T. Sato |  |
Super Aguri | |
1:36.082 | 15 |