Brazilian Grand Prix – Practice

September 23, 2005 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

Brazil’s not my favourite circuit by any means – it’s too short, the infield’s too tight (=very slow) and there’s almost no chance of overtaking. As well as being really bumpy, the drainage is faily poor … and the forecast for the weekend is wet! (Spring has just begun in Brazil.)

Alex Wurz was fastest in this morning’s session (1:11.701), followed by Sato, Alonso, Button and Raikkonen.

New engines this weekend for quite a few cars: FA, KR, AP, MW, RB, CK, JT, DC, TM, FM.

Track temperature 38°C; air temp 24°C; wind 1.6m/s; humidity 62%; pressure 926.9mBar.

Liuzzi sets fastest lap (1:15.385), which is quickly beaten by Wurz.
M.Schumachers takes fastest lap (1:14.643) but then spins in the wiggly infield.
Raikkonen puts in 1:13.950
Montoya sets 1:13.896 … still a couple of seconds off this morning’s best time
Alonso sets fastest sector 1 and S2 … but then backs off as he’s catching up on another car.
M.Schumacher puts in 1:13.205 and looked to have the Ferrari on the ragged edge.
At the other end of the timing table, Doornbos is over 4.5 seconds slower (1:17.901)
30 minutes gone.
Massa puts up 1:12.710 to beat MS by almost half a second (0.495s)
Montoya clocks in at 1:12.694 – within a second of Wurz’s top time from this morning.
The onboard camera shots show just how bumpy the track is, even the newly resurfaced section. Ugh.
Button posts a personal best (for this session) of 1:14.189 but he’s still down in P14
Yellow flags are out after Klien spun off backwards into the wall.
15 mins left.
It’s taken the Brazilian marshals almost five minutes to move CK’s wrecked Red Bull car.
Notably at the tail of the scoreboard: P21=R.Schumacher (1:14.832) & P22=Coulthard (1:15.171), with only Karthikeyan & Kiesa slower.
Zonta sticks in a good time (1:12.802) to drag himself from P20 to P3 … and next lap he’s P2 with 1:12.706, just 0.012s off JPM.
Webber spins and teammate Pizzonia has to almost stop to avoid him as MW spins back onto the track
SpeedTV’s commentators prove (yet again) that they’re clueless; we may have to watch the race with the sound turned off.
5 mins left.
Zonta squeezes past Fisichella into Turn 1 – that was a little close for comfort for a practice session!
Almost everyone is on track now, so don’t expect to see anyone beat Montoya’s top lap time.
OK, ignore what I just said – Wurz posts 1:12.083, fastest by 0.611s
Albers is off track but I didn’t see how that happened; looked like a lock up but CA picked up a piece of bodywork.