McLaren fastest as Zonta shows Toyota pace

McLaren fastest as Zonta shows Toyota pace
Italian GP - Second practice

While Ricardo Zonta set the pace in the second of today's two 60- minute practice sessions at Monza, it was Pedro de la Rosa who recorded the fastest time of the day with his best lap of 1:20.201s coming in the first session this morning, underlining the raw-pace that McLaren Mercedes are showing in the opening stages of the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

The second session today saw Ricardo Zonta show the pace of the Toyota package as he lapped fastest on a 1:20.531s best a whole second clear of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. Of course the test driver's do not have to conserve their engines and can run little fuel, so both of the McLaren racers will be happy with their second and third fastest times in this session.

Pedro de la Rosa was fourth fastest in this session, losing time in the final minutes as he coasted back to the McLaren pits with an apparent mechanical problem. BMW Williams continued to show improved form as Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld were fifth and sixth fastest for the team.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was a solid seventh fastest in his Red Bull Cosworth with the Red Bull racers of Christian Klien and David Coulthard in tenth and 19th positions respectively. Jarno Trulli was eighth fastest for Toyota with team-mate Ralf Schumacher down in 14th place.

For Renault, the opening day of practice saw just limited running and in fact over 95-minutes of the days practice had passed before Fernando Alonso recorded his first lap time. Giancarlo Fisichella would lead the way in ninth position, a tenth ahead of Alonso who was tenth. At roughly a second off the pace of Montoya and Raikkonen, Renault seem to be lacking raw-speed.

It was another tough day in what has been a tough year for the Ferrari squad. Michael Schumacher lost control of his Bridgestone- shod F2005 and went backwards into the barrier at Parabolica on his tenth lap of the session and ended up 12th fastest while Rubens Barrichello had a relatively clear run to a disappointing 16th best.

Felipe Massa was 13th fastest in his Ferrari powered Sauber just ahead of Ralf Schumacher and team-mate Jacques Villeneuve. Over at BAR Honda there was little evident pace as Takuma Sato and Jenson Button were just 17th and 18th fastest behind Barrichello but expect BAR to make some gains when it really counts tomorrow afternoon.

Tiago Monteiro made reasonable use of the newer Jordan Toyota EJ15B chassis as he was 20th best but with Narain Karthikeyan 21st and just a few tenths slower in the older EJ15, it seems the developed chassis still has some way to go.

Robert Doornbos was the fastest of the Minardi Cosworth trio, edging out team-mate Christijan Albers while Rookie driver Enrico Toccacelo did a solid job despite being slowest. Nicolas Kiesa was the final runner in his Jordan Toyota, but an engine failure on his out lap ended his day an hour prematurely.

Attention now turns to the final tyre selections for the remainder of the Grand prix weekend. Renault seems to have a lot of work to do over-night while McLaren Mercedes are looking very strong. Practice resumes at 09.00 CET tomorrow morning.

1 38 Ricardo Zonta Toyota 1:20.531
2 10 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.583
3 9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.735
4 35 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.922
5 7 Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1:22.032
6 8 Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1:22.107
7 37 Vitantonio Liuzzi Red Bull Racing 1:22.253
8 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:22.278
9 6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:22.440
10 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:22.594
11 15 Christian Klien Red Bull Racing 1:22.600
12 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:22.749
13 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:23.052
14 17 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:23.126
15 11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 1:23.208
16 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:23.213
17 4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:23.223
18 3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:23.415
19 14 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1:23.506
20 18 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota 1:23.994
21 19 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 1:24.202
22 20 Robert Doornbos Minardi-Cosworth 1:24.233
23 21 Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth 1:24.264
24 40 Enrico Toccacelo Minardi-Cosworth 1:25.245
25 39 Nicolas Kiesa Jordan-Toyota

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excelentes resultados para los Mclaren!!, ya estoy ansioso de ver la carrera, se ha puesto buenisimo el campeonato, los Renault no se vieron bien y esto le agrega mas interes a la carrera, ya quiero que empieze!!