Canada: Qualifying report

By Huw Alban
June 24 2006

Midland F1 Racing will start the Canadian Grand Prix from the second to last row of the grid. They missed out on the first session cut by just over half a second, but impressively were only 1.771 seconds off the pace set during the first 15 minutes.

Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro were out on track within the first three minutes of the first fifteen minute session. Christijan Albers put in a first quick lap of 1.18.254, and Tiago Monteiro a 1.18.758. Christijan was unable to improve on his time on his second flying lap, but Tiago shook off a good half a second to post a 1.18.179.

With 7 minutes and 22 seconds to go Midland F1 are looking quite handy, but the TV commentary noted that all the top runners were running on used tyres in order to post their lap times. This suggested that lap times were sure to tumble later in the session once the top teams swapped to new tyres to set times.

At 4.32 Tiago Monteiro took to the track, and at 4.07 Christijan Albers joined him. Tiago's next lap was an improvement to 1.17.227, and Christijan's a 1.17.140. At this point in the session that is only good enough for 19th and 18th respectively. Tiago improved slightly to a 1.17.121 on his next lap moving him ahead of his team mate but nothing more.

Midland F1 Racing will start the Canadian Grand Prix in 19th and 20th place.

Timesheet from the qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix:

1 Fernando Alonso Renault
2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault
3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes
4 Jarno Trulli Toyota
5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari
6 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth
7 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes
8 Jenson Button Honda
9 Rubens Barrichello Honda
10 Felipe Massa Ferrari
11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW
12 Christian Klien RBR-Ferrari
13 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW
14 Ralf Schumacher Toyota
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth
16 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari
17 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth
18 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth
19 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota
20 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota
21 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda
22 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda

 

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