Pedro helps McLaren dominate in China - Fri 14th Oct 2005
Pedro de la Rosa retained P1 for McLaren and Mercedes as the chequered flag came down on the first day of the final grand prix meeting of the year in Shanghai.
The Spaniard left it late before wresting top spot back from Toyota nemesis Ricardo Zonta, but blitzed his own fastest lap from session one by over half a second to ease the Brazilian off top spot with a handful of minutes to run. de la Rosa eventually posted a 1min 32.834secs best, which will probably remain untouchable for the remainder of the weekend, despite the cool and cloudy conditions that accompanied both sessions.
In a good session for McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen claimed third and Juan Montoya fifth, but constructors' championship rival Renault emphasised its intention to fight the Woking squad all the way by taking fourth with Fernando Alonso and seventh with Giancarlo Fisichella, who recovered from his first session spin to cover 28 laps in the second hour.
Incidents continued to be a central theme to the afternoon session, with Alonso not immune to the odd 'moment', but the Toyotas, in particular, finding the going tough. Both Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli had offs during the hour, the Italian clearly still not happy with the B-spec TF105 before finally grinding to a halt out on track in the closing stages.
Nicolas Kiesa, Takuma Sato and David Coulthard all also suffered incidents of varying degrees, while the Scot's Red Bull team-mate Christian Klien suffered a tyre problem in the second half. The most alarming moment, however, fell to Antonio Pizzonia, who appeared to suffer a suspension problem on his Williams-BMW which caused him to spin, fortunately without contact. The Brazilian returned to the track in the final ten minutes, eventually setting the 16th fastest time.
While de la Rosa and Zonta battled for top spot, Raikkonen also made a brief appearance in P1, but most of the interest focused on an ever-changing order behind the two reserve drivers, with Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, Fisichella and Jenson Button all vying for top five slots before having to settle for lesser positions. Barrichello eventually emerged as the closest rival to the McLarens and Renaults, the Brazilian claiming sixth spot, a tenth behind Montoya, by the chequered flag.
Felipe Massa completed the top ten after finding two seconds in his Sauber-Petronas, demoting DC, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sato in the process. Team-mate Jacques Villeneuve, still smarting from the penalty he picked up at Suzuka, could not match the improvement, and climbed only to 17th, seven-tenths off the Brazilian. Michael Schumacher dropped out of the top ten after failing to improve on his first session time, while brother Ralf and Toyota team-mate trulli both languished behind Villeneuve.
Jordan continued to head the basement battle, this time courtesy of Nicolas Kiesa's 1min 36.644secs effort, but both Robert Doornbos and Christijan Albers found a chunk of time to lift their Minardis off the bottom of the pile. The two Dutch drivers eased ahead of Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan, despite the Jordan drivers also finding more than a second.
2nd Practice Times:
1. Pedro de la Rosa Spain McLaren-Mercedes 01:32.834
2. Ricardo Zonta Brazil Toyota-Toyota 01:32.977
3. Kimi Raikkonen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 01:34.092
4. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 01:34.226
5. Juan Pablo Montoya Colombia McLaren-Mercedes 01:34.541
6. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 01:34.618
7. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Renault-Renault 01:34.932
8. Mark Webber Australia Williams-BMW 01:35.035
9. Jenson Button Britain BAR-Honda 01:35.072
10. Felipe Massa Brazil Sauber-Petronas 01:35.196
11. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull-Cosworth 01:35.201
12. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Red Bull-Cosworth 01:35.306
13. Takuma Sato Japan BAR-Honda 01:35.397
14. Michael Schumacher Germany Ferrari-Ferrari 01:35.567
15. Christian Klien Austria Red Bull-Cosworth 01:35.813
16. Antonio Pizzonia Brazil Williams-BMW 01:35.709
17. Jacques Villeneuve Canada Sauber-Petronas 01:35.894
18. Ralf Schumacher Germany Toyota-Toyota 01:36.051
19. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 01:36.079
20. Nicolas Kiesa Danish Jordan-Toyota 01:36.644
21. Robert Doornbos Holland Minardi-Cosworth 01:36.993
22. Christijan Albers Holland Minardi-Cosworth 01:37.173
23. Tiago Monteiro Portugal Jordan-Toyota 01:37.435
24. Narain Karthikeyan India Jordan-Toyota 01:37.467
