UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Prac 1.2: Wurz topples Williams

Austrian ends Friday on top

An hour proved a minute too long for the BMW WilliamsF1 team during the second practice session for the European Grand Prix.

Nick Heidfeld, and originally Mark Webber, had dominated Friday’s final run for over fifty minutes but in the dying seconds they were over run by the McLaren of Alex Wurz.

The Austrian also came close to losing top spot with Toyota's Ricardo Zonta putting in a lightning quick last lap.

But his final time of 1:30.623 was enough to hold off the Brazilian by just seven thousandths of a second.

Heidfeld managed to hold on to third position while McLaren's race pairing of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen relegated Mark Webber to fifth.

Despite the promising result, there was still reason for concern at Williams.

Webber's session came to a very premature end when he lost the rear of his car and spun off into the gravel.

Heidfeld also watched the clock count down from the pit wall after his FW26 ground to a halt at the entrance to the pit lane.

There were no such troubles for Renault, Toyota or BAR, but a distinct lack of pace did provide some worry.

Fernando Alonso was Renault's top driver with a time of 1:32.335, almost two seconds off the pace.

Over two seconds off the pace was Ralf Schumacher with a 1:33.098 for P10 in his Toyota.

Even worse was BAR's best effort of 1:33.514, almost three seconds slower than Wurz’s benchmark, by Takuma Sato for fifteenth.

Ferrari were also mixing it with the aforementioned trio of teams but the distance to the leader was of less concern for the Scuderia.

The team had struggled to even compete in previous rounds so seventh position, one and a half seconds off the pace, for Rubens Barrichello was a relatively strong start to the weekend.

PRACTICE SHORTS

* Welcome back. Formula One drivers were reunited with the world of gravel on Friday after spending last weekend in the enclosed layout of Monte-Carlo.

Tiago Monteiro was first to head back into the outfield, beaching his Jordan in the first 15 minutes of the session.

Mark Webber of Williams was next before the second Jordan of Narain Karthikeyan followed suit.

Christian Klien also had some time in the rough stuff but managed to clamber out and back to the safety of the Red Bull garage.

* Turned down. One explanation for BAR's lack of pace was the serious concerns over the longevity of their Honda engines.

The units have not been used in five weeks and the team admit they may not last the race distance on Sunday.

Trackside speculation suggested that to combat the fears BAR had turned down the revs significantly on Jenson Button and Takuma Sato’s engines.

* Blown hopes. Tonio Liuzzi's hopes of a strong race at his final attempt were all but blown on Friday afternoon.

The Italian made an early exit from session two after what appeared to be a Cosworth engine failure.

* Champion problems. Michael Schumacher's second session didn't go according to plan.

The F1 champ could only complete five laps before he returned to the Ferrari garage, jumped out his F2005 and wasn't spotted again.

Written: Fri, 27 May 2005 13:08:03