Kubica fastest in practice 1 - France
Robert Kubica topped the times in opening practice for the French Grand Prix on Friday, clocking a best lap in 1:16.794 in sweltering conditions at the Magny-Cours circuit in central France
Pushing his BMW Sauber hard, he wound up three tenths of a second faster than his nearest rival, Briton Anthony Davidson. who clocked a best lap of 1:17.133 in his Honda.
Davidson's fellow Briton and Honda teammate Jenson Button was third fastest, 1.3 seconds off the pace, after only four laps.
On a hot day in Burgundy in central France, with the air temperature rising beyond 32 degrees Celsius and the track temperature at 47 degrees, most of the top drivers chose not to venture out of their garages.
Many of the fans in the weekend sellout crowd, enjoying the Bastille Day heatwave, did not see any laps from Ferrari, with both Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa choosing to remain indoors.
There was no action from several other drivers including Nick Heidfeld, of the BMW Sauber team, Mark Webber of Williams and Rubens Barrichello of Honda.
After all the long queues to enter the circuit, the intense heat and the lack of any shade, it must have seemed a high price to pay for little entertainment, but the drivers who made an effort, including briefly Jenson Button in his Honda, did their best.
The hour's session was littered with incidents with several drivers running off and returning to the track and Japan's Sakon Yamamoto in a Super Aguri providing most entertainment with his erratic performance. He finally came to a stop at turn 12.
Frenchman Franck Montagny in another Super Aguri Honda, making his final appearance before stepping down, was also on and off the circuit frequently and had one lap time stripped for cutting out an apex.
Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, back racing for McLaren as replacement for the departed Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, clocked just one lap.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Kubica BMW-Sauber (M) 1:16.794 31 2. Davidson Honda (M) 1:17.133 + 0.339 29 3. Button Honda (M) 1:18.160 + 1.366 4 4. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:18.752 + 1.958 6 5. Sutil MF1-Toyota (B) 1:18.777 + 1.983 32 6. Jani Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M) 1:18.962 + 2.168 21 7. Wurz Williams-Cosworth (B) 1:19.055 + 2.261 17 8. Villeneuve BMW-Sauber (M) 1:19.063 + 2.269 6 9. Doornbos Red Bull-Ferrari (M) 1:19.311 + 2.517 20 10. Rosberg Williams-Cosworth (B) 1:19.401 + 2.607 6 11. Albers MF1-Toyota (B) 1:19.465 + 2.671 7 12. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:19.806 + 3.012 7 13. Monteiro MF1-Toyota (B) 1:20.335 + 3.541 7 14. Montagny Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:20.790 + 3.996 11 15. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:21.160 + 4.366 10 16. Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:23.891 + 7.097 11 17. Fisichella Renault (M) No time 1 18. Alonso Renault (M) No time 1 19. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) No time 1 20. Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M) No time 1 21. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M) No time 2 22. Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari (M) No time 1 23. Klien Red Bull-Ferrari (M) No time 1 24. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) No time 1 25. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 26. Massa Ferrari (B) 27. Webber Williams-Cosworth (B) 28. Barrichello Honda (M) 29. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (M) All Timing Unofficial
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