Imola: First free practice rundown for MF1

By Huw Alban
April 21 2006

Midland F1 had a strong start to the San Marino Grand Prix weekend in the first free practice session. Despite having to wait for the track to clean up Christijan Albers made good use of his track time to post the 10th fastest time of the session.

The first 25 minutes of the first practice session were very quiet for Midland. Giorgio Mondini, Christijan Albers, and Tiago Monteiro all completed their installation laps very quickly when the session opened. Mondini curiously went out for a further installation lap 5 minutes later.

A quick question to the Midland F1 garage revealed that the track was very dirty, and the team were waiting for other cars to clean it up a little before going out again. Up until this point both Super Aguri's, and the test drivers for Williams, Honda, and Red Bull Racing had been circulating and hopefully doing a good cleaning job!

Giorgio Mondini was the first to strike out for Midland F1 posting a 1.35.911, a 1.34.130, a 1.34.040, a 1.32.888, a 1.31.696, and next a 1.30.931 which took him above Takuma Sato at this stage on the timesheets. Each lap he was posting green sectors times indicating that he was getting quicker and quicker.

Giorgio was joined on track by his team mates with 25 minutes of the session to go. Albers first time places him 2 10ths behind Mondini (who has now pitted), but still ahead of Sato - very encouraging. Albers next lap (a 1.29.237) takes him ahead of Mondini and 2.562 behind current BMW pace setter Robert Kubica. Monteiro meanwhile seems to have got himself sandwiched between the two Super Aguri's, but on his 8th lap manages to set a quicker time than that of Sato.

With 15 minutes to go Albers is 4th, Mondini 7th and in the garage, and Monteiro 8th. Christijan has managed to get the gap to the front down to 1.859!

At the 10 minute mark both the race drivers have returned to the Midland pit, with Giorgio Mondini taking their place on the track. Good use of resource from the Midland F1 boys!

At the 5 minute mark all three are out and circulating, and steadily improving on their sector times. The session finished with Albers in 10th, Mondini an impressive 12th and Monteiro 15th. The second free practice session starts in two hours time, but unfortunately MF1O will not be there to report on it as it happens (real work gets in the way occasionally).

Full times from the first free practice session at Imola:

1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:24.751
2 Alexander Wurz Williams-Cosworth 1:25.132
3 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW 1:25.942
4 Anthony Davidson Honda 1:26.012
5 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:26.417
6 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:26.498
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26.596
8 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 1:26.678
9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.938
10 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:28.048
11 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:28.498
12 Giorgio Mondini MF1-Toyota 1:28.969
13 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari 1:29.106
14 Neel Jani STR-Cosworth 1:29.695
15 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:29.697
16 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:30.348
17 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:31.217
18 Yuji Ide Super Aguri-Honda 1:31.482