German GP: First practice report

By Huw Alban
July 28 2006

Business as usual from the Midland F1 Racing team today during the first free practice session, until in the dying minutes Christijan Albers experienced what looks like a complete engine failure. Damn!

The Friday free practice sessions for Midland F1 Racing are starting to form a pattern now. In the main it is the development driver of the weekend that does most of the mileage on Friday, with therace driver team only stepping in if the mileage is needed.

Local boy Markus Winkelhock is in the T-car seat today and I'm expecting the usual healthy number of laps from him. I'm not expecting him to be particularly fast, as over other Friday sessions he has been as quick as Sutil or Mondini. Being fast on a Friday isn't what this is about. Technical feedback is what is required so that the team can make the correct tyre choice and work on balance and setup options.

True to form Markus and Tiago Monteiro were amongst the first drivers out on the track at the start of the session to complete a faultless installation lap. Markus was back out again 10 minutes later after the customary installation lap checks were over. Christijan Albers completed his installation lap sometime after.

For the next 45 minutes Markus circulated completing 21 laps on a best time of 1.18.964, around 2.5 seconds slower than the current pace setter of Alex Wurz.

Things got going for Midland F1 in the last 7 minutes with both race drivers joining Markus on the track. Both Tiago and Christijan immediately recorded green sector times lap after lap and were starting to close on their German team mate for this weekend.

With three minutes to go, the track status turned to yellow and a STOP under sector 1 appeared against Nico Rosberg. Phew, I thought, at least it wasn't an MF1 car that was causing the yellow flags. No sooner had I thought that then a similar indicator appeared against Christijan, also in sector 1, suggesting that perhaps the two drivers had tangled and gone off the track.

A quick question to the Midland garage revealed that the two had in fact had separate incidents, although indications are at the moment that Christijan may have an engine problem. More on this one if we hear it.

Not a stella show from the Midland F1 boys, but at least Markus was quicker than both the Super Aguri cars helping me to calm my fears over the performance of their new car.

Full timesheet from the first free practice session for the German Grand Prix:

1 Alexander Wurz Williams-Cosworth 1:16.349
2 Anthony Davidson Honda 1:16.523
3 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW 1:17.343
4 Jenson Button Honda 1:17.439
5 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:17.835
6 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:18.085
7 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:18.328
8 Neel Jani STR-Cosworth 1:18.539
9 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:18.664
10 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 1:18.795
11 Markus Winkelhock MF1-Toyota 1:18.964
12 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW 1:18.972
13 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:19.214
14 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 1:19.507
15 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:20.102
16 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:20.132
17 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:20.575
18 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:20.950
19 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda 1:21.218
20 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:34.942

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