Competitive start in Brazil for WilliamsF1

JPM fastest
By Andrew Hooper
October 22 2004

With Juan Pablo and Ralf 1st and 3rd fastest it would be a competitive start in Brazil for the WilliamsF1 team, after the opening Friday practice at the Interlagos circuit. For both Juan Pablo and Ralf it will be their last race for the WilliamsF1 team.

	Brazilian GP Friday 1st Practice
	This weekends Brazilian Grand Prix would be a race that would see the last of several relationships. It would be Ralf and Juan Pablo's last race for WilliamsF1, Coulthard's last race for McLaren, and the last race for the Jaguar team. For the WilliamsF1 drivers the session would show that they wanted to get the weekend of to a positive start. Juan Pablo and Ralf would finish the session with the first and third fastest times. It was a very competitive start to proceedings. The opening Friday practice at the Interlagos circuit would be run under dry conditions, a welcome change from the conditions experienced in Japan. With the start of the session there would be the usual flurry of activity as drivers went out for their installation laps. The first driver to set a time would be Jordan driver Robert Doornbos, with a time of 1m:21.833. He would improve with a time of 1m:18.716. Jaguar's Bjorn Wirdheim would set the second time with a lap of 1m:23.774. Doornbos would see his time lowered to a 1m:17.327. Timo Glock and Ryan Briscoe would be second and third. With fifteen minutes of the session run it would be BAR's Anthony Davidson who would move to the top of the times with a 1m:16.148. Toyota's Ryan Briscoe was in second with a 1m:16.279. For Minardi Bruni would set a time of 1m:17.322. Doornbos would move back into second with a 1m:15.790. With just over half of the session remaining some of the big name drivers would come out, with Ralf taking his FW26 out onto the track. For Ralf he would get straight to business setting the quickest time with a 1m:15.529. Ralf would be hoping to improve on his second place in Japan. Ralf would be joined by team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya. Ralf would improve with a 1m:14.601, to be a second faster than his earlier time. Juan Pablo would also get down to very quick times setting a 1m:14.614 to be second. Both Ferrari's would also come out and it would be Barrichello to set the first time moving into eighth with a time of 1m:16.251, good enough only for eighth. Michael Schumacher could only manage a 1m:14.672 to be fifth. Sauber's Felipe Massa was now in third with a 1m:15.571. For Rubens his next lap would see him set the quickest time with a 1m:13.988. Renault's Fernando Alonso would set a time of 1m:14.510. With twenty minutes left Michael Schumacher would go second with a lap of 1m:14.421. For Toyota's Jarno Trulli he would now be in sixth with a 1m:14.705. But in what is his usual style BAR's Anthony Davidson would take the fastest spot with a 1m:13.874. Ralf was now in third with a 1m:14.335. Juan Pablo would also improve with a 1m:14.075 to now be in third. Toyota's Ricardo Zonta was now seventh with a 1m:14.678. In the final ten minutes Zonta would spin, and the McLaren's would come out. With a time of 1m:13.669 Coulthard would go fastest. He would improve with a 1m:13.277. Alonso was now up to fourth with a 1m:13.990. For Mark Webber his first lap would see him set a time of 1m:14.487, to be in ninth. Barrichello was now up to second with a 1m:13.873. It was all starting to hot up in the closing minutes of the session. Davidson would go second with a 1m:13.232. The second McLaren of Raikkonen would leap past the others, going fastest with a time of 1m:13.150. Michael Schumacher would improve to be seventh with a time of 1m:14.122. Trulli was now in sixth with a 1m:14.019, while BAR's Takuma Sato would move into fourth with a 1m:13.868. But Barrichello would push the BAR driver down one spot when he was to move into fourth with a time of 1m:13.855. But the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers were also out looking to improve. Ralf would record a time of 1:12.873 to be fastest. Toyota's Ryan Briscoe would brake into the 1m:12 second bracket with a time of 1m:12.614. Juan Pablo would go fastest with a time of 1m:12.547. It was certainly looking like both WilliamsF1 drivers were looking competitive based on these early times. Michael Schumacher was way down in eleventh. So with the end of the session the top six would be Juan Pablo followed by Briscoe, Ralf, Raikkonen, Davidson and Coulthard. The session would see the Michelin runners hold the advantage over their Bridgestone rivals with nine of the top ten Michelin supplied.
	Pos Driver Team Tyres  Time Laps 1. Montoya WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:15.547 + 0.018 11 2. Briscoe Toyota (M) 1:15.614 + 0.085 25 3. R. Schumacher WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:15.873 + 0.344 12 4. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:16.150 + 0.621 4 5. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:16.232 + 0.703 22 6. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:16.277 + 0.748 6 7. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:16.512 + 0.983 15 8. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:16.839 + 1.310 10 9. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:16.855 + 1.326 13 10. Alonso Renault (M) 1:16.990 + 1.461 12 11. M. Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:17.042 + 1.513 13 12. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:17.118 + 1.589 14 13. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:17.147 + 1.618 9 14. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:17.187 + 1.658 13 15. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:17.207 + 1.678 14 16. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:17.479 + 1.950 13 17. Villeneuve Renault (M) 1:17.585 + 2.056 13 18. Doornbos Jordan-Ford (B) 1:17.957 + 2.428 27 19. Wirdheim Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.065 + 2.536 24 20. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:18.414 + 2.885 12 21. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.476 + 2.947 15 22. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:18.490 + 2.961 12 23. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:18.647 + 3.118 18 24. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:19.406 + 3.877 13 25. Leinders Minardi-Cosworth (B) No Time

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