Monza, 8th September 2006

With all the teams having tested at the Monza circuit just last week, the first hour of free practice this morning did not provide much track action as the majority of teams chose to spare the life of their tyres and engines, reasonably confident that data from last week provided a base line from which to work in the afternoon, when the track had more rubber down. In fact only 12 drivers posted a time.

This was definitely the case for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro as Michael Schumacher, running the same car and engine as in Turkey did not even leave the garage, while team-mate Felipe Massa, running a new engine contented himself with one un-timed installation lap. Back to business as usual in the afternoon, Michael and Felipe were second and third respectively in their 248 F1, behind the BMW Sauber of third driver, Sebastian Vettel. Schumacher did eleven laps, while the winner of the Turkish Grand Prix a fortnight ago did one more.

Fourth was Alex Wurz for Williams ahead of the McLaren-Mercedes duo of Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen. Unluckiest man of the day was Anthony Davidson, as Honda's Friday-only driver suffered an engine failure in both sessions. The threat of storms which had been predicted earlier this week seems to have died down and a fine day is forecast for tomorrow when the qualifying session should provide the quickest average speeds of the year on this the fastest circuit on the calendar.