Paul Ricard 18/05/06 – Toyota 7th and 11th fastest
By Nick Sparkes
May 19 2006
On the third day at Paul Ricard Jarno and Ralf left the circuit as they were replaced by Zonta and Panis. The Paul Ricard circuit was also changed so the teams could prepare their cars for the Canadian Grand Prix. That theme stayed throughout the day with Canada’s Jacque Villeneuve going fastest.
Villeneuve completed a healthy 125 laps, finishing 0.4 seconds ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault. McLaren showed an improvement with Pedro de la Rosa finishing third.
Ricardo Zonta finished seventh, almost a second behind Villeneuve. Olivier Panis in the second TF106B was eleventh, almost two seconds behind the fastest man. Between them were the McLaren of Paffett, the Red Bull of Doornbos and the Toro Rosso of Jani.
Felipe Massa completed a mere three laps before his engine went bang, with the team leaving the circuit early as a result.
| 1 | J. Villeneuve |  |
BMW |  |
01:25.379 | 125 |
| 2 | H. Kovalainen |  |
Renault | |
01:25.736 | 121 |
| 3 | P. de la Rosa |  |
McLaren | |
01:25.834 | 120 |
| 4 | R. Kubica |  |
BMW | |
01:25.931 | 97 |
| 5 | F. Alonso | |
Renault | |
01:26.033 | 63 |
| 6 | D. Coulthard |  |
Red Bull | |
01:26.172 | 91 |
| 7 | R. Zonta |  |
Toyota |  |
01:26.261 | 101 |
| 8 | G. Paffett | |
McLaren | |
01:26.443 | 99 |
| 9 | R. Doornbos |  |
Red Bull | |
01:26.498 | 44 |
| 10 | N. Jani |  |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | |
01:26.668 | 103 |
| 11 | O. Panis |  |
Toyota | |
01:27.037 | 82 |
| 12 | F. Massa | |
Ferrari | |
00:00.00 | 3 |