Wurz Quickest in Practice 2 - Bahrain
Alex Wurz put McLaren on top of the pile after Friday's practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix as World Champions Ferrari failed to shine with their all-new F2005 machine
Ferrari gave their new car its debut in Friday morning's practice session and saw World Champion Michael Schumacher finish second behind Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta but he could only manage fifth best time in the afternoon.
Wurz blitzed the times from the morning session with a lap of 1:30.695 to finish 1.274 seconds ahead of closest challenger Fernando Alonso, of Spain, who won the last race in Malaysia for Renault
Vitantonio Liuzzi finished third for Red Bull Racing with Pedro de la Rosa, who has moved into McLaren's race team to replace Juan Pablo Montoya, in fourth place just ahead of Schumacher.
Jarno Trulli finished sixth with Giancarlo Fisichella, the winner of the season-opening race in Australia, seventh more than two seconds off the pace in his Renault.
Kimi Raikkonen finished eight in the third McLaren with Jenson Button, of BAR-Honda, ninth and Ralf Schumacher tenth for Toyota as cars and drivers endured temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius.
Wurz led the times early on before Raikkonen took over at the top of the times and Schumacher, out early in the new F2005, pushed hard on his first flying lap to slot into second.
Trulli then moved into the top place by just two thousandths of a second as the top four runners, Trulli, Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher and de la Rosa, were covered by less than one tenth of a second.
Wurz then raised the bar hugely when he set a time exactly 2.6 seconds faster than any of his rivals to break the previous best time of the weekend set in the morning by Zonta.
Dutchman Robert Doornbos had a trip across the grass in his Jordan and both Ralf and Michael Schumacher briefly ran wide before Takuma Sato stopped at turn eight with an apparent mechanical failure.
Ralf Schumacher had trouble adjusting to the slippery Bahrain circuit and went wide at turn one and turn ten and also spun his Toyota at turn one before setting a strong lap at the end of the session.
Michael Schumacher appeared to be struggling with the new Ferrari having only tested it for the first time last week and he locked up his tyres several times on several different laps.
Rubens Barrichello, who had set the fifth fastest time in the first session with his new F2005, failed to even venture out on the track in the second hour and sat watching from the pit wall for most of the session.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:30.695 20 2. Alonso Renault (M) 1:31.969 + 1.274 24 3. Liuzzi Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:32.319 + 1.624 30 4. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:32.333 + 1.638 13 5. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:32.431 + 1.736 16 6. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:32.595 + 1.900 22 7. Fisichella Renault (M) 1:32.708 + 2.013 24 8. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:32.988 + 2.293 18 9. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:33.037 + 2.342 23 10. R.Schumacher Toyota (M) 1:33.077 + 2.382 19 11. Heidfeld Williams-BMW (M) 1:33.152 + 2.457 20 12. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:33.205 + 2.510 13 13. Klien Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:33.436 + 2.741 25 14. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:33.443 + 2.748 11 15. Webber Williams-BMW (M) 1:33.563 + 2.868 16 16. Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:33.708 + 3.013 21 17. Massa Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:33.726 + 3.031 18 18. Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:33.981 + 3.286 16 19. Doornbos Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:34.222 + 3.527 26 20. Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:34.300 + 3.605 19 21. Monteiro Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:34.727 + 4.032 18 22. Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:35.325 + 4.630 21 23. Albers Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:36.094 + 5.399 22 24. Barrichello Ferrari (B) No Time All timing unofficial
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