Midland thwarted by Spanish weather

By Huw Alban
February 22 2006

Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers struggled with cool temperatures today at Barcelona, and unfortunately the lap times and number of laps show it. Still, the team still managed to get in some useful track time.

The day started wet and cold, but did eventually dry out. Unfortunately this meant that the opportunities to put in quick laps all occurred at the end of the day. According to the team press release:

Cool track temperatures in the morning limited the amount of meaningful running the team could perform early in the day. Tiago completed some Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) control systems tests followed by a tyre programme before handing over to Christijan in the afternoon.

Tiago Monteiro: "I had a short but efficient day. It was very cold in the morning, which cut short the number of laps I could cover today. Once the track warmed up, though, we made a few runs to determine our tyre choices for the first two races. No performance runs today, just checking tyres and control systems.

"Overall, I think we had a good performance day yesterday and a good testing day today.

"Now, I'm looking forward to shaking down the second M16 next week, and then gearing up mentally for the first race. Bring it on!"

Christijan Albers took over in the afternoon and completed a Bridgestone tyre test. Christijan Albers: "It was unfortunate that it was so cold this morning, because it was very difficult to get sufficient heat into the tyres and we lost a lot of track time as a result. I'm glad I could cover the number of laps I did, though and the session went very well.

"Tomorrow, we will be running a tyre program with Bridgestone over the course of a complete race distance. Hopefully, there won't be any red flags interrupting the run.

"We will probably also attempt a qualifying simulation and continue making adjustments to improve the car."

Full list of times from Barcelona today:

1. K. Raikkonen - McLaren Mercedes MP4/21 - 1'15"223 (+0"000) - 96 laps
2. G. Fisichella - Renault R26 - 1'15"500 (+0"277) - 92 laps
3. F. Alonso - Renault R26 - 1'15"801 (+0"578) - 93 laps
4. J. Button - Honda RA106 - 1'15"969 (+0"746) - 88 laps
5. J. Trulli - Toyota TF106 - 1'16"193 (+0"970) - 93 laps
6. R. Schumacher - Toyota TF106 - 1'16"381 (+1"158) - 47 laps
7. R. Barrichello - Honda RA106 -1'16"486 (+1"263) - 66 laps
8. J.P. Montoya - McLaren Mercedes MP4/21 - 1'16"538 (+1"315) - 87 laps
9. C. Klien - Red Bull Ferrari RB2 - 1'16"927 (+1"704) - 35 laps
10. D. Coulthard - Red Bull Ferrari RB2 - 1'18"212 (+2"989) - 12 laps
11. M. Webber - Williams Cosworth FW28 - 1'18"265 (+3"042) - 88 laps
12. C. Albers – MF1 Toyota M16 - 1'19"300 (+4"077) - 28 laps
13. T. Monteiro – MF1 Toyota M16 - 1'20"381 (+5"158) - 35 laps
14. Y. Ide - Super Aguri Honda SA05 - 1'24"455 (+9"232) - 43 laps