Hungarian GP: Second practice report

By Huw Alban
August 4 2006

Midland F1 stepped up a gear for the second free practice, and gave me quite a scare for the first 30 minutes. The second half of the session saw business as usual for Markus and Tiago, although mechanical problems halted Christijan's progress.

Markus Winkelhock was amongst the first nine drivers out on the circuit, and his first quick lap of 1.27.111 was actually slower than that he placed in the first session two hours ago.

10 minutes into the session and Tiago Monteiro comes out, but his first flyer of 1.28.410 is less than sparkling as well. Both men post their quickest time on their first quick lap and after that the times dip sharply.

20 minutes in, and Felipe Massa gives me a scare. He does a scorching 1.21.778 which is a scarely quick time, especially in comparison to our pace at the moment. A few minutes later and Christijan Albers comes out and posts one quick lap time, but that is a lowly 1.29.008. At this point my optimism was shot to pieces.

30 minutes in and Markus comes out again. Now I sit up and take notice because his sector times are not only green, but they are also good in comparison to other competitors on the track. Three green sectors gives him a 1.25.314 which is much more like it - nice job Markus!

5 minutes later and Christijan is back out again, but curiously he aborts his run on the very first lap. Whilst the Dutchman was on his out lap, Markus joins him and over the course of a one timed lap run improves to 1.24.473, which is enough for 11th at this point in the session and only 2.695 seconds off the pace set by Massa.

There was then a big gap of non activity from the Midland F1 boys, but they all come out one last time in the last 6 minutes of the session. Markus managed another improvement to a 1.24.381 giving him 12th place overall. Tiago Monteiro but in a lap time close to that of the German - a 1.24.508 netting him 15th spot.

Christijan Albers could only manage a 1.25.038, and then stopped out on the track in secotor 2 with, according to Eurosport, some kind of mechanical gremlin. Makes you wonder whether he was carrying a problem for the entire two sessions, as he had definately been the slowest of the three today.

Full timesheet from the Second Practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix:

1 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:21.778
2 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:23.097
3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:23.189
4 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:23.195
5 Anthony Davidson Honda 1:23.498
6 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:23.747
7 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:23.771
8 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:23.931
9 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 1:23.934
10 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW 1:24.106
11 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.252
12 Markus Winkelhock MF1-Toyota 1:24.381
13 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:24.445
14 Jenson Button Honda 1:24.465
15 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:24.508
16 Alexander Wurz Williams-Cosworth 1:24.609
17 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:24.623
18 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:24.793
19 Neel Jani STR-Cosworth 1:24.854
20 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:25.038
21 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:25.152
22 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:25.393
23 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari 1:25.647
24 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 1:25.843
25 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.968
26 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:26.198
27 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda 1:26.877

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