Spain: Practice – Toyota back in the pack
By Nick Sparkes
May 13 2006
The final practice session took place in warm sunshine, and was incident free. Red Bull Racing put in the surprise performances with Klien and Coulthard heading the table with ten minutes left. But, it was Michael Schumacher who ended up fastest.
Saturday – Third Session
With the majority of the drivers just fine-tuning their cars for this afternoon’s knockout qualifying hour, the times should give a rough indication into who looks to be challenging for pole position. Toyota looked to have a very slow session, with the early times of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli matching those of the Midland pair. They would improve into the top ten for a short period, before moving backwards down the field. Both Toyota’s completed a high number of laps, and by combining those laps to what was done yesterday the engines look to have completed three-quarters of a race distance already. Albeit Ralf is using a fresh Toyota V8, teammate Jarno Trulli is using his engine for the second time in a row, and with the pair expected to complete another twenty laps in this afternoons qualifying session both Toyota’s would had completed a further race distance before going into tomorrows Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher looks to be the main contender for this afternoons pole after going fastest, Fisichella put in a brave effort to finish second whilst BMW-Sauber found some unexpected pace to launch Heidfeld up into third. Home hero Fernando Alonso finished in eighth, although I wouldn’t count him out as a contender for this afternoon’s pole position.
| 1 | M. Schumacher |  |
Ferrari |  |
1:15.658 | 14 |
| 2 | G. Fisichella |  |
Renault |  |
1:15.707 | 14 |
| 3 | N. Heidfeld | |
BMW | |
1:16.057 | 13 |
| 4 | C. Klien |  |
Red Bull | |
1:16.277 | 12 |
| 5 | D. Coulthard |  |
Red Bull | |
1:16.352 | 16 |
| 6 | R. Barrichello |  |
Honda | |
1:16.399 | 16 |
| 7 | F. Massa | |
Ferrari | |
1:16.410 | 15 |
| 8 | F. Alonso |  |
Renault | |
1:01.595 | 10 |
| 9 | JP. Montoya |  |
McLaren | |
1:16.660 | 9 |
| 10 | K. Räikkönen |  |
McLaren | |
1:16.705 | 9 |
| 11 | J. Button | |
Honda | |
1:16.999 | 188 |
| 12 | S. Speed |  |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
1:17.004 | 13 |
| 13 | R. Schumacher | |
Toyota | |
1:17.199 | 19 |
| 14 | V. Liuzzi | |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
1:17.240 | 19 |
| 15 | N. Rosberg | |
Williams | |
1:17.645 | 14 |
| 16 | M. Webber |  |
Williams | |
1:17.743 | 14 |
| 17 | J. Villeneuve |  |
BMW | |
1:17.924 | 16 |
| 18 | J. Trulli | |
Toyota | |
1:18.411 | 18 |
| 19 | T. Monteiro |  |
Midland F1 | |
1:18.747 | 22 |
| 20 | T. Sato |  |
Super Aguri | |
1:18.857 | 20 |
| 21 | C. Albers |  |
Midland F1 | |
1:19.587 | 19 |
| 22 | F. Montagny |  |
Super Aguri | |
1:20.031 | 24 |