WilliamsF1 7th & 10th in Friday 1st Practice

For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the opening practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix would see Mark and Nick finish in seventh and tenth positions respectively. Both drivers would limit their track time, as is the Friday custom, to just twelve laps between them.

The session would see several driver changes with McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya absent due to a shoulder injury. His place was taken by Pedro de la Rosa, with Alex Wurz driving the third McLaren. The team would have to make modifications to his car to allow him to fit. Takuma Sato would return after his illness in Malaysia. Ferrari would also bring the new F2005 to this track after their disappointing result in Malaysia.

Under very high temperatures the session would start with Jordan's Robert Doornbos the first driver out onto the circuit, joined by Minardi's Patrick Friesacher. Minardi's Christijan Albers and McLaren's Alex Wurz were next out. Wurz would look like he was only a timed lap but would pull into the pit lane. He would go out again only to abort his lap. Rubens Barrichello would be the first driver to take the F2005 out onto the track.

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta and Doornbos would both set times, with Zonta's been a
1m:36.709. Doornbos would set a time of 1:40.918. Wurz would stop out on teh track with problems with his car. Red Bull's Viantonio Liuzzi would be the third driver to record a time, with a lap of 1m:40.428.

So with twenty minutes of the session run only three drivers had set a time. Doornbos would improve with a 1m:36.844. Friesacher would move into fourth with a 1m:39.495. Team-mate Albers would have a moment in the second sector when he was to lock up his tyres at turn nine, ending up off the track. He was able to continue. Liuzzi was now in second with a 1m:35.604.

Zonta would go fastest with a 1m:34.497, improving with a 1m:34.212. Jordan's Tiago Monteiro now would also set a time with a 1m:39.181. Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella would head out onto the track. Jordan's Karthikeyan sets a time of 1m:35.871. Wurz's McLaren was able to be recovered allowing the Austrian to return to the track. Fisichella would return to his pit, while team-mate Alonso went out.

Both Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld would take to the track, while Alonso returned to his pit. Mark would set a time of 1m:34.407 on his first lap to move into second. Heidfeld would pass his team-mate with a 1m:34.722 to be second.

With fifteen minutes left in the session de la Rosa was now up to third with a 1m:34.245. Liuzzi would go fastest with a time of 1m:32.509. As the session wound down more cars to come out. Wurz was back out and would set a quick time of 1m:33.407. Zonta would easily set the fastest time with a 1m:31.974, to be half a second faster. Ralf Schumacher would come out for the first time.

Jenson Button was now in fourth with a 1m:34.002. David Coulthard was now in eighth while Villeneuve was in twelfth with a 1m:35.766. Both the Ferrari's of Barrichello and Michael Schumacher went out and would quickly set a time at the top. Raikkonen was now in fourth. A time of 1m:35.142 was only good enough for eleventh for Barrichello.

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta would set a time that would leave even one in its wake, with a time of 1m:31.449. Michael Schumacher would set a time of 1m:32.748 to be in third. Rubens would improve to be fifth with a time of 1m:33.111. Michael was now in second with a 1m:32.120.

Again the Friday sessions are one's where the Friday drivers lead the field, with no concerns over reliability.