The 2006 San Marino Formula 1 Grand Prix
Moderators: cmlean, Ed, The Qualiflyer, The Heretic
Session over: Alonso (1:25.043) fastest ahead of M Schumacher (1:25.371) and Kubica. Davidson, Massa, Fisichella, Trulli and Wurz make the top 8.
Full Results
Full Results
Selected quotes from Friday:
Fernando Alonso (Renault) - Fastest - 2nd Session
Fernando Alonso (Renault) - Fastest - 2nd Session
Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) - 2nd fastest - 2nd Session (Fastest 1st Session)As usual on the Friday, the grip levels were quite bad. That makes the car inconsistent to drive, and we began working on the set-up to try and improve things. We are not there yet, and we are suffering from too much understeer at the moment. I think we are quick as well but as always, the times on Friday don't mean too much. If we can make some good changes tonight, though, I think we will be a in a strong situation for the race.
Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber Test Driver) - 3rd fastestWe are happy with the work done today, which has left me in a
positive mood. I see no reason to be pessimistic, even though that doesn?t mean we were slow at the previous races. We have made progress in various areas and even if they are only minor things, all put together they have produced a good step forward. The whole package is working better and therefore the car is quicker. I think we can fight for pole tomorrow and I even believe we can be in the hunt for the win on Sunday. I say it again, I am optimistic.
Anthony Davidson (Honda Test Driver) - 4th fastestThis is my first ever Formula One practice in Europe. I already knew Imola, but they have changed the chicane and re-asphalted some corners. Where the grip level was poor the car was very unstable. We have worked to choose the best tyres, mainly concentrating on doing long runs to see the degradation, and I think we have done two really good sessions. I think it was a good Friday and I think the team will be happy with my driving and our job with the guys
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) - 5th fastestWe've made a good start to the weekend, collecting plenty of data from our extensive tyre evaluation work. The track conditions were very slippery this morning due to the asphalt around the new chicane but that improved this afternoon and I think we have got some good running under our belts
Giancarlo Fisichella - 6th fastestAll in all, I am happy with what we achieved today. In the morning, we struggled a bit to find the best set-up, however we improved the car in the afternoon. I used the same set of tyres throughout the two hours to prepare as well as possible for the race. I think we now have a good starting point for the rest of the weekend. I am happy to be here at Imola for the first time as a Ferrari driver and hope to give the fans something to cheer about.
Jarno Trulli (Toyota) - 7th fastestI had a difficult day to be honest. The balance of the car is not good and the grip is very low on the track. The main problem is in the chicanes where the handling is inconsistent, which means you cannot attack them with any confidence. We have a lot of work to do tonight, to reach our normal level of performance.
Alex Wurz (Williams Test Driver) - 8th fastestI haven't had much fortune in the first three races, but I am more confident about this weekend. At last week's Barcelona test we took a different direction with set-up. That led to a big step forward, and today the handling of the car was pretty close to how I like it. We had to do more laps than usual because of Ralf's problems but we look good so far. We have some small steps on the car here and Bridgestone have brought some new tyres so that should give us a chance to get closer to the top teams. Historically Imola has never been a good track for Toyota, but I'm confident we can turn that record around.
Pat Symonds (Renault)We completed a busy test programme today, so now we have to sit down and carefully analyse what did what and how it should translate to the race cars. My role is purely to evaluate our options and I spent all my time conducting long runs, which is why we do not appear higher up in the timing results, but this doesn?t worry me at all. We just have to pull our whole package together a bit tighter and then we will be competitive.
Jean Todt (Ferrari)In very low grip conditions such as we experienced today, it is perfectly understandable that neither driver is particularly happy with the balance of the car at the moment. We made some limited changes to the set-up in the second session and we seem to be going in the right direction, so we will continue to study the data overnight to solve the problems. All things considered, our relative competitiveness seems to be where we would expect.
Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber)It was the usual Friday, dedicated to evaluating the two types of tyre and setting up the cars. From what we could see and allowing for the usual factors relating to fuel loads and tyre usage for the other teams, we can say that the 248 F1-Bridgestone tyre combination seems to be competitive. Now we have to work on making a further step forward
for qualifying and the race.
Gil de Ferran (Honda)It was a good practice day. Robert had a very heavy workload, especially as he was comparing the different tyre compounds over long runs. With this data we have a solid basis to decide on the tyres and the set-up for both racing cars. Nick and Jacques carried out their planned programmes as well. We were able to complete all of this with no technical problems.
Dieter Gass (Toyota)We have had a reasonably good first day with Anthony getting good clean runs to compare tyres in practice one and two. As a result we have some very good data on this front. On the other hand there is still some room for improvement as far as the car balance is concerned, since all three drivers are unhappy with similar issues. Hopefully we can address some of these overnight and be in a strong position for qualifying tomorrow.
Sam Michael (Williams)That was a day of mixed emotions for us. Some of the Imola track has been resurfaced so the grip was lacking early in the session but the modification to the Variante Alta is good. We had a very positive day with Jarno, who was happy with his car's balance. He was able to complete his programme of set-up and tyre evaluation, even though he struggled with traffic on his last run. Unfortunately we lost most of Ralf's running because he had some electronic problems so we have less data than usual for the tyre choice. We have an aero update here and overall this was a promising start to the weekend.
Ron Dennis (McLaren)We had a productive day with Alex?s car today and we went through the whole programme, particularly checking tyres. The tyre choice will be difficult, but we have plenty of data to go through to assist the engineers with this. Alex also tried a couple of different mechanical set-ups specific to the Imola circuit. We did two runs with Nico?s car to give him more track time and one run with Mark?s car to check the balance, so it was normal activity for a Friday.
Two uneventful but productive practice sessions where we conserved our equipment but still gained a lot of information which we will evaluate overnight. Both Juan Pablo and Kimi went through their planned programmes, and we are definitely heading in the right direction.