Schumacher Very Fast At The Nurburgring

By Dale Calkins
May 6 2006

Michael Schumacher showed today that Ferrari can perform strongly at other circuits this year by going very fast in free practice at the Nurburgring. Schumacher went 4th and 3rd quickest in the two respective sessions, with Felipe Massa not spending nearly as much time on the circuit.

Schumacher Very Fast At The Nurburgring	Dale Calkins
Michael Schumacher FP 1: 4th - 1'32.858 FP 2: 3rd - 1'33.619 Michael Schumacher was on track today for the Free Practice 1 and 2 for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. The German was quick on home soil, setting the 4th and 3rd fastest times in the respective sessions. This is agood indicatiob of Ferrari continued faster form. Here is what the 7-Time World Champion had to say about his sessions: "We had a good day and I am reasonably happy with the car. We are more or less where we expected to be. Looking at the times, the situation seems quite good. I opted for just one type of tyre for this first day of free practice, working only on this and the choice seemed to be the best one. Our main rivals also seem very strong, so I think it will be a very close fight. We are confident and from what we have seen, we are also competitive here. If we can put all the pieces of the jigsaw together then we can fight for the win." Felipe Massa FP 1: No time FP 2: 14th - 1'34.546 Felipe Massa had an uneventful day at the German circuit as he only ran in the second session. Mass completed only 18 laps in the second session setting only the 14th fastest time. This is what the young Brazilian had to say after his first day at Imola: "As usual, today was spent mainly comparing the two types of tyre Bridgestone has brought here for us and on finding the best set-up on the 248 F1. Michael and I split the work load, each trying a different type of tyre. Overall, I am reasonably happy with the way things went this afternoon and we now have a lot of data to study. We know we have a good potential and we have to try and improve the car for qualifying and most of all, for the race." Ross Brawn Technical Director Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn was pleased with today's running and is positive for a good result in qualifying and the race. Here is what Ross had to say: "Getting the car balanced was a bit tricky at first, but I think both race engineers did a good job with their drivers to improve the situation, to the extent that, come the end of the second hour, both Michael and Felipe were happy. The two drivers used different tyre types so as to get as much data as possible to work with from this afternoon onwards. Basically, the cars seem to be competitive and we are confident for the rest of the weekend."
May 5, 2006
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