06/05/2005
NEWS STORY
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Ahead of today's second free practice session, the air temperature is 25 degrees C, while the track temperature is 44 degrees.
Once again, Mark Webber will play no part in this session, the Australian awaiting a new specification BMW power-plant from Munich.
When the lights go green, Christian Klien leads Doornbos, de la Rosa, Zonta, Friesacher, Massa, Liuzzi and Villeneuve out on to the Barcelona track. Pretty soon, Coulthard, Monteiro, Raikkonen and Albers are on track.
Once the first wave of drivers have posted their times, and the dust has settled, Zonta tops the timesheets with a 1:17.518. de la Rosa is second, ahead of Massa, Liuzzi and Villeneuve.
Raikkonen posts 1:17.803 to go second, ahead of Coulthard, as Ralf, Karthikeyan and Fisichella leave their garages. The Finn improves with a 1:17.354, but remains 0.469s shy of Zonta.
Albers session, and indeed his day, is at an end, he stops in the second sector with what appears to be a mechanical problem. He went off into the kitty litter in the first session… never to return.
Barrichello, who never posted a time this morning, goes tenth with a 1:20.382, elsewhere, Klien goes ninth and Heidfeld sixth.
Fisichella is finally on the Barcelona timesheets, the Roman posting 1:18.251 to go fourth, ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Moments later, local hero Fernando Alonso posts his first time of the weekend, the youngster crossing the line at 1:18.227, to go fourth and bump his teammate down to fifth.
Another hot lap from Zonta, who now raises the bar - no pun intended - to 1:16.220. Elsewhere, Michael Schumacher posts 1:18.486, to go ninth, behind de la Rosa.
Other than Webber, who will play no part today, the only driver that hasn't made an appearance is Montoya.
Alonso improves to third, but remains 1.7s off Zonta's pace.
David Coulthard raises his pace and goes second with a 1:16.797, meanwhile de la Rosa improves to sixth. Toyota's Ralf Schumacher improves with a 1:17.739, but remains sixth.
Twenty-five minutes into the session, Juan Pablo Montoya finally leaves the McLaren garage.
At 'half-time', we have one of those traditional Friday lulls. The order is: Zonta, ahead of Coulthard, Raikkonen, Alonso, Fisichella, Montoya, Ralf, Trulli, de la Rosa and Massa. Michael is eleventh, ahead of Liuzzi, Barrichello, Heidfeld, Klien and Villeneuve.
Moment later however, Raikkonen leapfrogs Coulthard with a 1:16.586.
Klien's session is over, the Austrian spins off into the kitty litter and is unable to get going again.
Ralf Schumacher improves to fifth, thus splitting the Renaults, while Heidfeld improves to tenth.
Jarno Trulli posts 1:17.028 to go fourth as Heidfeld improves to eighth, the young German being WilliamsF1's only representative today.
Michael Schumacher improves his time, but remains twelfth fastest, 1.8s off the pace.
With ten minutes remaining there are quite a few cars on track, but little happening. Hopefully this is the calm before the storm.
Montoya posts 1:17.555 to go eighth, as Friesacher improves (1:20.686) but remains last (of 21), even though he is still quickest through the speed-trap (204 mph).
A 1:16.821 sees Heidfeld go fourth, while Villeneuve improves to fifteenth. Next time around the German improves to third, closing to within 0.379s of pace-man Zonta. Trulli also improves (1:16.724) but remains fourth.
As Heidfeld goes quickest in the second sector, Pedro de la Rosa begins what appears to be a very hot lap. The German fails to improve whilst the Spaniard goes quickest with a 1:15.062, beating Zonta's time by 1.15s and almost eclipsing the 2004 pole time.
In the final moments of the session, Juan Pablo Montoya has a very heavy crash at Turn 8, there's massive damage to the car but the Colombian seems fine.
The session ends with de la Rosa quickest, ahead of Zonta, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Trulli, Coulthard, Fisichella, Ralf, Alonso and Montoya.
Barrichello is eleventh quickest, ahead of Massa, Michael, Villeneuve, Liuzzi, Klien, Karthikeyan, Doornbos, Monteiro, Albers and Friesacher.
Hardly an inspiring session, but that's Grand Prix Fridays for you.