WilliamsF1 struggle in second Friday practice

With the first practice session hampered by heavy rain, with Michael Schumacher setting the fastest time, a 1m:47.906, .456 seconds faster than Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella. The second session would again see the drivers having to contend with rain. With the start of the session four drivers would take to the track. Jordan's Doornbos, the Jaguar's of Mark Webber and Christian Klien, and Anthony Davidson in the BAR. They would be joined by McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. The rain would be easing but it would still require wet weather tyres. The race organisers had even gone to the unusual extent of turning on the circuit lights, which were installed for a motorcycle endurance race at the circuit.

The first time would be set by Mark Webber, a time of 1m:51.719. Klein would go second with a 1m:54.766. But BAR's test driver Anthony Davidson would move in to second with a 1m:51.766. Jordan's Timo Glock would spin his car but keep going.

Davidson would improve with a 1m:50.478 to go fastest. Robert Doornbos would go second fastest with a time of 1m:51.007, while Davidson would lower his quickest time down to a 1m:49.598. Timo Glock would go second with a 1m:49.610. Renault's Jacques Villeneuve was now out and would go third fastest with a time of 1m:50.084.

Timo Glock would set the fastest first sector, 38.1, and would complete his lap in first position with a time of 1m:49.277. After his lap he would spin at the hairpin but was able to keep going. With fifteen minutes of the session run the top ten was Glock, Davidson, Villeneuve, Fernando Alonso, Doornbos, Webber, Klien, Bas Lenders, Jarno Trulli, and Baumgartner. BAR's Takuma Sato would go sixth, a 1m:51.015.

But all these times would mean little when Michael Schumacher would make his first run and would destroy Glock's time by 3.889 seconds, with a 1m:45.388. Sato would improve with a 1m:50.259. McLaren's David Coulthard's first time would be a 1m:50.465, to see him in eighth. Heidfeld would set a time of 1m:49.286, to move into fourth. Coulthard would improve with a 1m:48.905, to now be in second. But his time was still 3.517 seconds behind Michael Schumacher.

Jarno Trulli would go tenth in his first run with the Toyota team. Kimi Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello would join Michael in the top three, with Rubens second with a 1m:46.874 and Kimi third with a 1m:47.019. But Kimi would improve with a 1m:46.749 to now be second.

With nearly thirty minutes of the session run both BMW WilliamsF1 drivers, Ralf
Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, would take to the track. On his first lap Ralf would be down in fifteenth. Juan Pablo was down in thirteenth, with a time of 1m:50.060. His next quick lap would see him abort this. For Zsolt Baumgartner his session would end with his Minardi beached. Massa, Glock, and Alonso would all go off at Turn six.

The rain would start to get heavier, such that the rest of the session would be a wash out. With twenty minutes left in the session the top ten was Michael Schumacher, Fisichella, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Coulthard, Glock, Heidfeld, Sato, Davidson and Villeneuve. Toyota's Oliver Panis, Bijorn Wirdheim, Felipe Massa and Ryan Briscoe were yet to set a time in the session.

Sauber's Fisichella would improve with a time of 1m:46.102 to now be in second. With under ten minutes of the session remaining the track would be covered with water from the heavy rain. Panis would take to the track but it was at a very slow pace. He would return to his pit after his lap. Ralf and Juan Pablo would still down in twelfth and thirteenth, and with the conditions far from ideal they would not be expected to improve on their times.