Second Free Practice- France

By Jane Gibbons
July 14 2006

A review from the second practice session from France Magny-Cours, where BMW driver Kubica was top of the pile again but just ahead of Fernando Alonso who was the fastest race driver. Giancarlo Fisichella managed 5th position and was the second fastest race driver of the session

By the start of the second practice the track temperature had risen to 53º with an air temperature of 35º and a reduced humidity of 34% so the prospect of rain looks increasingly unlikely.

Fastest man from the morning session, Robert Kubica, left the pit lane almost as soon as the lights came on followed by most of the other test drivers and the Ferraris were the first of the leading teams to emerge. Massa went fastest on his very first timed lap of the day before Schumacher ominously set a time of 1:17.938 on only his fourth lap. However after the first Renault of Giancarlo appeared with 34 minutes remaining on the clock and set a 1:17.916 on his second timed lap to take the top spot, it looks quite clear that the Bridgestone runners will be without their Indy advantage this weekend. Fernando followed him out with a similar first lap and was even quicker on his second to go 4 tenths up on his team mate with a 1'17"505. The pair of them remained at the head of the timesheets for some while until Kubica produced a 1'16"902 - just two tenths shy of his time from the first session set in cooler conditions. For the remainder of the session none of the race drivers improved past the Renault duo but both Barrichello and Scot Speed managed to spin at the Nurburgring Chicane hitting the barriers and ending their sessions there.

Neither Renault completed more than 6 laps on their first run and they returned to the circuit with just under 15 minutes of the session remaining. Fernando improved on his time slightly with a 1'17"498 which is enough to keep him in second whilst Giancarlo finished the session in 5th place but is still the next fastest race driver without needing to improve on his earlier time. Schumacher was only marginally slower in 6th and these three are the only race drivers in the top 8 with times under 1:18.000. Adrian Sutil was impressive and substantially quicker than both Midland race drivers in 7th whilst the McLarens were surprisingly off the pace. Raikkonen managed only 15th before appearing to have yet another mechanical problem and Montoyas replacement Pedro De La Rosa ended the session in 22nd. I should also give some credit to Yamamoto at this point as he was still slowest in 29th place but this time only half a second behind Montagny so maybe theres hope for him not to be another Kamikaze pilot yet!

All considered a pretty satisfactory second session for Renault with Fernando completing 14 laps to Fisi's 13 and looking well on the way to putting his Indy disappointment behind him. Whilst he was nearly half a second slower than Fernando, Giancarlo has an engine that is on it's second cycle and we don't yet know the fuel loads so a one-two finish on Sunday still looks a strong possibility. Whilst Schumacher was only fractionally behind Giancarlo, Massa produced a time good enough only for 13th in the end which further confirms what many suspected about the tyre performance at the US Grand Prix and offers the Michelin runners hope for a much stronger weekend in France.



Pos. Driver Team Tires Time Laps
1 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.902 33
2 F. Alonso Renault 1:17.498 14
3 A. Davidson Honda 1:17.750 37
4 A. Wurz Williams 1:17.859 29
5 G. Fisichella Renault 1:17.916 13
6 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:17.938 16
7 A. Sutil Midland F1 1:18.049 31
8 R. Doornbos Red Bull 1:18.175 28
9 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:18.274 21
10 N. Jani Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.639 32
11 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.721 23
12 J. Button Honda 1:19.005 18
13 F. Massa Ferrari 1:19.013 20
14 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:19.108 15
15 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:19.140 9
16 C. Albers Midland F1 1:19.183 21
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:19.259 5
18 M. Webber Williams 1:19.413 10
19 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.589 14
20 N. Rosberg Williams 1:19.692 19
21 T. Monteiro Midland F1 1:19.701 19
22 P. de la Rosa McLaren 1:19.809 14
23 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:19.996 22
24 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.003 12
25 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:20.135 12
26 J. Villeneuve BMW 1:20.154 11
27 C. Klien Red Bull 1:20.409 14
28 F. Montagny Super Aguri 1:21.132 14
29 S. Yamamoto Super Aguri 1:21.969 32