European GP 2006

MAY 6, 2006

Practice 3 Report - Italian horse still prancing

Michael Schumacher, European GP 2006
© The Cahier Archive

Practice on Saturday morning at the Nurburgring produced a rather odd list of runners with Ferrari seemingly having continued to accelerate away from the opposition. Michael Schumacher set a best time three-tenths faster than Felipe Massa and six-tenths faster than the nearest challenger, Ralf Schumacher's Toyota. Underlining that the times cannot much be trusted Jacques Villeneuve was fourth quickest in the BMW Sauber with the two Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso fifth and sixth. Next up was Jenson Button's Honda ahead of the Red Bull Ferrari of Christian Klien and the Toro Rosso of Tonio Liuzzi. Kimi Raikkonen was 10th fastest ahead of Nico Rosberg, Scott Speed, Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Expect a very different line up after qualifying this afternoon. It will be interesting to see whether Ferrari's apparent progress will be confirmed.