McLaren Dominate Practice 2 - France
Friday, 01 July 2005 12:56
Kimi Raikkonen's Championship hopes were dampened on Friday afternoon when he suffered an apparent engine failure on his McLaren as the team dominated the second practice session for the French Grand Prix.
Finn Raikkonen failed to complete a lap after grinding to a halt early in the second session and he will be forced to drop ten places on the grid if the team have to replace his engine following the incident.
It was a session of mixed fortunes for McLaren, however, as they displayed their competitiveness when test driver Pedro de la Rosa led racer Juan Pablo Montoya in a one-two at the top of the timesheets.
De la Rosa's time of 1:14.460, just three tenths faster than his morning session-topping time, put him 0.669 seconds ahead of Montoya with World Champion Michael Schumacher showing good form to finish best of the rest in third.
Schumacher, who won the last race in the United States with a competition of just five other drivers, is confident of fighting hard with a full grid and finished just 0.744 seconds off the top spot.
Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella put the newly-liveried Renault up into fourth and fifth spots respectively while Frenchman Olivier Panis thrilled the home crowd with sixth fastest time for Toyota.
Rubens Barrichello claimed seventh in the second Ferrari, 1.145 seconds off the lead pace, with Toyota duo Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher, back after his crash in Indianapolis, claiming eighth and ninth respectively.
David Coulthard completed the top ten runners in his Red Bull Racing machine while Jenson Button was down in a disappointing 12th place and Williams pair Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld were 16th and 17th.
The session began in increased temperatures of 24 degrees with the sun continuing to shine down on the Magny-Cours circuit but things went wrong very soon for Raikkonen, who stopped on track after the failure in the second sector.
Christian Klien then suffered an off when he made a mistake at the exit of the chicane and hit the barriers at high speed but was able to walk away of his damaged Red Bull machine.
Fisichella then spun at the final chicane, late in the session, after making a mistake heading into the corner and spinning out backwards onto the grass but continued back to the pits.
De la Rosa finished fastest in the opening practice session with a time of 1:14.778 that put him 0.405 seconds ahead of second-placed Alonso with the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella just 0.072 seconds further back in third. |
