06/10/2006
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's first free practice session, the air temperature is 22 degrees C, while the track temperature is 20 degrees. It's cool, seriously overcast, and though it has been raining this morning, with five minutes before the session gets underway, it has stopped. Nonetheless, the session is declared officially "wet". We expect plenty more rain throughout the weekend.
The lights go green, and first out is Sakon Yamamoto, followed by Davidson, Sutil, Jani, Vettel, Wurz and Montagny. Surprisingly, Webber is another early riser… we rarely see the WilliamsF1 race drivers in this session.
Though most of the drivers return to the pits, having completed the obligatory installation lap, Davidson stays out to post the first time of the weekend (1:49.261).
Speed, Raikkonen and Sato take to the track, as Davidson lowers the benchmark to 49.119. Alexander Wurz posts 50.375.
Wurz goes quickest (48.739), though the track remains exceedingly wet, ahead of Davidson, Sutil, Vettel and Montagny.
Kubica, Coulthard, Heidfeld and Alonso leave the pits, the Spaniard no doubt happy to be alone in his cockpit, away from the media. Teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, about whom Alonso has made some extremely unfair remarks in recent days, is also on track.
Twenty-two minutes into the session, just three cars on track, Vettel, Ammermuller and Monteiro.
With just over thirty-one minutes remaining, Montagny goes quickest in the first two sectors, finally crossing the line at 1:47.918, 0.821s quicker than Wurz. Sutil is the only other man on track.
Barrichello and Trulli leave the pits, as does Sato, but in all honesty there's little happening as the teams seem determined to wait until the weather decides what it wants to do. The 'rooster details' are not as pronounced as they were earlier in the session, but it's still very wet, with some parts of the circuit far more wet than others.
Ralf and Button leave the pits, as Ammermuller goes quickest in the first sector. Sure enough, the German goes quickest, crossing the line at 1:47.718. Elsewhere, Sato goes fifth (49.062).
A 1:46.042 sees Anthony Davidson go quickest, the Englishman expected to be confirmed as Super Aguri's second driver for 2007 this weekend.
With seventeen minutes remaining, only the Ferraris haven't made an appearance.
Davidson, Ammermuller, Montagny, Wurz, Sato, Vettel, Jani and Sutil.
It's all over for Montagny who spins off into the gravel at the second part of the Degner Curve, bringing out the yellow flags.
Davidson gets down to 1:45.349, as Yamamoto goes eighth (51.971).
With just over eight minutes remaining, Speed is back on track, as Jani goes second with a 46.138. Albers, Monteiro and Liuzzi also leave the pits.
Albers and Speed both make it on to the timesheets, but it's clear that we're not going to see anything from the 'big guns' this morning. Speed goes fifth, while Albers goes sixth. Just 11 names on the timesheets with less than a minute remaining.
Hopefully, providing there's no more rain before the second session - and we wouldn't bet on it - we'll see a lot more action on the second session. Though as we've already said, we expect further rain throughout the weekend.
The session ends, with Davidson quickest, ahead of Jani, Vettel, Ammermuller, Sutil, Speed, Albers, Montagny, Wurz, Sato and Yamamoto.