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Test driver
Pedro de la Rosa (Team McLaren Mercedes/Michelin) set fastest lap on the
opening day of the Spanish Grand Prix meeting at the Circuit de Catalunya,
in the outskirts of Barcelona. Comfortably quickest this morning, the
Spaniard improved to 1m 15.062s in the closing moments of this afternoon's
second free practice session.
Toyota reserve Ricardo Zonta (Toyota/Michelin) was second overall as five
Michelin teams took a clean sweep of the top ten positions on aggregate.
Nick Heidfeld (BMW WilliamsF1 Team) was third, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Team
McLaren Mercedes), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing),
Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Ralf
Schumacher (Toyota) and local hero - and world championship leader -
Fernando Alonso (Renault).
The BAR-Honda team will miss the Spanish Grand Prix - and Monaco, a
fortnight from now - after picking up a two-race ban for an alleged rule
infringement in the recent San Marino Grand Prix. Its drivers Jenson Button
and Takuma Sato originally finished third and fifth at Imola, but an FIA
International Court of Appeal found the team guilty of using fuel as weight
ballast, in contravention of F1 regulations. The team has protested its
innocence, but has decided not to take the case to a civil court.
With Button and Sato excluded from the San Marino results, the amended top
eight reads: 1 Fernando Alonso (Renault/Michelin); 2 Michael Schumacher
(Ferrari); 3 Alexander Wurz (McLaren-Mercedes/Michelin); 4 Jacques
Villeneuve (Sauber-Petronas/Michelin); 5 Jarno Trulli (Toyota/Michelin); 6
Nick Heidfeld (Williams-BMW/Michelin); 7 Mark Webber
(Williams-BMW/Michelin); 8 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull-Cosworth/Michelin).
Juan Pablo Montoya (Team McLaren Mercedes) has returned to the cockpit this
weekend after missing two races with a shoulder injury. The Colombian was
11th overall at the end of the two free practice sessions - but he crashed
heavily moments before the chequered flag was shown this afternoon.
Mark Webber (Williams-BMW/Michelin) did not appear on track at the Circuit
de Catalunya today. The team discovered faulty exhaust valves on both its
cars' engines and has little choice but to replace them. Fresh-specification
V10s will be installed on Saturday morning. By not running today, however,
Webber will not be deemed to have had an unscheduled engine change (he is
due a fresh V10 for this event) and will not be docked 10 places on the
grid. His team-mate Nick Heidfeld cannot escape such a penalty, however,
because he was supposed to complete one more race without a change.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director:
"Although the Circuit de Catalunya has been resurfaced and is no longer as
abrasive as it used to be, its combination of tight corners and fast,
high-speed sweeps is always going to place a significant load on tyres.
During the build-up to the race the new surface hasn't made the task for our
engineers any easier, and it has given them a different type of problem to
assess."
"We brought three different types of tyre to this race and it is conceivable
that all will be used on Sunday, because they appear well suited to the
conditions. We have accumulated plenty of useful data today and that has
given us an excellent platform on which to build for the balance of the
weekend." |
