China: Third practice and qualifying

By Huw Alban
September 30 2006

Not exactly a stella start to Spyker MF1's first Grand Prix with Tiago Monteiro starting 19th, and Christijan Albers getting into trouble with the race stewards and having his times deleted. If it remains wet however, the team can play with their strategy to snatch a result tomorrow.

Spyker MF1 looked quite handy during the third and final free practice session with Christijan Albers setting the 7th fastest time of the session. Tiago Monteiro also looked useful not far behind his team mate in 12th place.

Full results from the third free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix:

1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2 Fernando Alonso Renault
3 Jenson Button Honda
4 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth
5 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth
6 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth
7 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota
8 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault
9 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes
10 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari
11 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth
12 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota
13 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW
14 Rubens Barrichello Honda
15 Felipe Massa Ferrari
16 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda
17 Jarno Trulli Toyota
18 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari
19 Ralf Schumacher Toyota
20 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda

Christijan Albers was the first Spyker MF1 driver out on the track at the start of the wet qualifying hour. In the last 10 minutes of the first session there was a multitude of spins from cars up and down the grid, with the rain getting worse and worse. At the start of the last 5 minutes of the session both Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro was in the last 6 with time for one more quick lap each.

Tiago had a technical issue on his quick lap at turn which is most unfortunate and brought out a red flag. The TV footage clearly showed Tiago struggling with the buttons on the steering wheel of his Spyker MF1 M16 as he pulled off the track.

The session finished with Spyker MF1 in 19th and 20th places, but later Christijan Albers had his times deleted for missing an official weighbridge call and so he will start tomorrows race from the back of the grid.

Full results from the qualifying sessions for the Chinese Grand Prix:

1 Fernando Alonso Renault
2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault
3 Rubens Barrichello Honda
4 Jenson Button Honda
5 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes
6 Michael Schumacher Ferrari
7 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes
8 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW
9 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW
10 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari
11 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth
12 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari
13 Felipe Massa Ferrari
14 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth
15 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth
16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth
17 Ralf Schumacher Toyota
18 Jarno Trulli Toyota
19 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota
20 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda
21 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda
22 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota - Times deleted

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