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With Mark Webber
finishing the Friday practice sessions in twelfth and Nico Rosberg in twenty
fourth the team would have to make the best use of the remaining practice
session. The fastest time from Friday was a 1m:12.013 by Davidson. But the
fastest time set by a race driver was a 1m:12.458. With
the start of the session it would be the MF1 of Tiago Monteiro that would
come out first. He would be joined by team-mate Albers. Both drivers would
pit after an installation lap. The next driver to leave the pit lane was
Super Aguri's Takuma Sato. He would also pit after just a single
installation lap.
 With
ten minutes of the session run we had yet to see a timed lap been recorded.
Hardly the way to make Formula One appear to be interesting to a US
audience. Finally we would have a driver come out, Mark Webber, followed by
Red Bull's David Coulthard. Villeneuve was also out on the track. Mark would
start a timed lap finishing with a 1m:14.475, some margin behind the
quickest Friday time. Ralf Schumacher, Scott Speed, and Nico Rosberg were
also on the circuit. Coulthard moved into second with a 1m:15.207.
Ralf would pit after an installation lap. Villeneuve would move ahead of
Coulthard with a lap of 1m:14.156. Liuzzi would join Torro Rosso Scott Speed
out on the track. The second Red Bull of Christian Klien was now out, joined
by Fisichella. Mark had improved his time with a 1m:13.675. Nico was in
fourth with a time of 1m:15.115. But Speed and Liuzzi would move ahead of
the German. Coulthard had pitted. Raikkonen and Trulli had now also left the
pits. Klien was now in second with a 1m:13.986. Both Mark and Nico had
returned to their pits.
On his first lap Raikkonen would move to the top of the times with a
1m:13.436. Klien was now in second ahead of Mark, 1m:13.455. Speed would go
fastest, 1m:13.417, while Trulli was now in fourth pushing Mark down to
fifth. Nico was in tenth. Fisichella was in seventh after a moment on the
grass at Turn one. Button was out and would move up to eighth. He would be
joined by Team-mate
Barrichello. Michael Schumacher had also come out of the pit lane.
Fisichella would move ahead of Speed after setting a new fastest time,
1m:13.357. Button and Montoya were in eighth and ninth.
 Michael was on a quick lap and would move into first with a time of
1m:12.484, to be 0.873 seconds ahead of Fisichella. Button had moved into
third, 1m:13.368. Mark was now in eighth and Nico fourteenth. Alonso was now
out on the track leaving just Massa and Montagny yet to appear. Michael
would lower his fastest time with a 1m:12.145. This now put him 1.212
seconds ahead of Fisichella.
On his first lap Alonso would move into second, 1m:13.303. Michael and
Alonso would be split by the BMW Sauber of Heidfeld who moved into second
with a time of 1m:13.002. Mark was back out and his first lap would see him
move up into sixth with a time of 1m:13.383. Michael had improved his time
with a 1m:12.100. Mark would pit with just under thirty minutes remaining in
the session.
Nico was now down in seventeenth as Alonso moved back into second with a
1m:12.961, still 0.861 seconds behind Michael. Button was now in fifth,
1m:13.368, and Fisichella fourth. Speed was in seventh, followed by
Raikkonen and Klien. Ralf was in tenth. Speed would find some time and moved
up into fourth, 1m:13.224. Team-mate Liuzzi was now in fifth, 1m:13.354.
Mark had dropped to eighth. On his first lap it would be the Ferrari of
Felipe Massa that would move to the top of the times with a 1m:11.039. This
was over a second better than Michael's best, but was it more of qualifying
run.
Nico had come back out looking to improve as he was currently in twentieth.
Montagny had taken to the circuit and was in eighteenth. Villeneuve had
improved to now be in sixth, 1m:13.319. Montoya was down in seventeenth.
Massa would pit but Michael was back out. Raikkonen would move into third,
1m:12.569. Mark was now in eleventh and Nico eighteenth. Barrichello would
join team-mate Button in the top ten, moving into sixth with a 1m:13.126.
Alonso was now in fourth followed by Heidfeld. Kimi would pit while Mark was
back out in what would most likely be a test of his qualifying run. Mark
would improve to jump up into ninth, 1m:13.235. Montoya was now in eighth,
1m:13.185, pushing
Mark down one spot. With fifteen minutes left in the session Heidfeld would
move ahead of Michael and into second, 1m:12.091, but was still over a
second slower than Massa.
Mark would pit. The top ten was Massa, Heidfeld, Michael, Raikkonen, Alonso,
Barrichello, Liuzzi, Speed, Montoya, and Mark. Klien would move into ninth,
1m:13.113. Team-mate Coulthard was in fifteenth. There would only be a
handful of drivers out on the track with ten minutes remaining. The others
would be making preparations for their trial qualifying runs. Nico would
take to the track making it only four drivers still running, the others had
returned to their pits. Heidfeld would leave the pit lane followed by
Barrichello.
Nico's lap would see him move into eleventh, 1m:13.230, one place ahead of
Mark. This time shows that he is going to have a difficult qualifying.
Barrichello was now in fourth, 1m:12.149. Nico would pit while Montoya and
Speed had come out. They were joined by a flood of drivers looking to seta
time in the final four minutes. Mark had yet to come out. Villeneuve was now
in fifth. Ralf had moved up to be in ninth. Mark was now out as Fisichella
moved into second, 1m:11.940. Michael was on a quick lap. Button was now in
seventh as Michael went fastest with a stunning 1m:10.760.
Mark was in twelfth with a time of 1m:12.904. With the end of the session
the order was Michael followed by Massa, Fisichella, Heidfeld, Barrichello,
Alonso, Button, Villeneuve, Raikkonen, and Montoya. Mark was in twelfth
while Nico was really struggling been down in nineteenth. Qualifying for
both WilliamsF1 drivers is going to be a difficult time with it been
unlikely that they will make it into the final group of ten drivers. |
