JUNE 17, 2005

UNITED STATES GP - FRIDAY - PRACTICE SESSION 2 REPORT

Montoya again

Juan Pablo Montoya topped the timesheets on Friday afternoon with a lap that was a tenth faster than his McLaren team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari fans were able to celebrate the fact that Rubens Barrichello was third quickest and Michael Schumacher fourth but it remains to be seen how the team goes on longer runs, as it seems unlikely that the Ferrari crew has found a fix to the tyre problems in the last few days since Montreal.

Nick Heidfeld was fifth fastest in his Williams-BMW ahead of David Coulthard's Red Bull, which ran only a few laps before DC had a big spin. Next up was McLaren's third driver Pedro de la Rosa and then a surprisingly quick Scott Speed, giving American race fans something to get excited about for the future. Ninth and 10th quickest were Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli, while Giancarlo Fisichella was 11th quickest ahead of Felipe Massa's Sauber and Mark Webber, who was obviously not pushing to the maximum in his Williams. The BAR-Honda team was not on the pace with Jenson Button and Takuma Sato 15th and 16th but a much better performance is expected in qualifying tomorrow when the times will be a little more serious.

Toyota had a difficult time in the session with both Ricardo Zonta and Ralf Schumacher having what appeared to be left rear tyre failures. Zonta spun harmlessly out into a gravel trap but Schumacher hit the wall hard but emerged without injury from the biggest crash we have seen all year. The team is currently investigating the accidents.

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