Turkish GP: First practice report

By Huw Alban
August 25 2006

After a three week break the Formula One World Championship blasts back into action in Istanbul. Midland F1 Racing appear to have been busy working on new developments and tweaks to the M16, and with only 5 races to go their chances of scoring points are fast running out.

Normal service resumed at the start of the first practice session with Giorgio Mondini amongst the first drivers out on track.

Giorgio appeared to be putting in a good run of laps, although initially his lap times were not all that sparkling. Over a series of runs the time gradually improved until he was within 2.5 seconds of the pace setting time, which is about normal for the team during a 1st practice session. Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers joined in towards the end of the session, but then the FormulaOne.com timing screen froze up with a 'Please Wait ...' message so the end of the session was a mystery.

The second free practice session gets underway in 2 hours time and, assuming we can see some times, we'll try and bring it to you blow by blow.

Full timesheet from the First Free Practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix:

1 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.315
2 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:28.777
3 Jenson Button Honda 1:28.785
4 Alexander Wurz Williams-Cosworth 1:28.959
5 Anthony Davidson Honda 1:29.193
6 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.376
7 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 1:29.780
8 Sebastian Vettel Sauber-BMW 1:29.964
9 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:30.391
10 Neel Jani STR-Cosworth 1:30.576
11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:30.838
12 Giorgio Mondini MF1-Toyota 1:30.846
13 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:31.416
14 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:31.475
15 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:31.566
16 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda 1:31.814
17 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:31.904
18 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda 1:32.212
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:32.497

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