Third Official free practice

Published on 11 December 2005 by Thorsten Hendriks

In the last practice Jos Verstappen clocked the 3rd fastest time this morning. The difference to the top was reduced to just over 0.1 of a second. Jos set his fastest time in his last flying lap. Team France was fastest again, but the gap to second (Team Great Britain) was only 0.067 of a second. The gap to number 3 (Jos Verstappen) was only 0.065 of a second. This looks promising for the qualifying sessions.

Remarkable is that Team Switzerland is nowhere to be seen, neither is Malaysia. The two teams from 'Down Under' (Australia and New Zealand) were further down the grid than we are used from them. The laptimes between the teams are very close; from the first car to the last was only 1.5 seconds. Something you don't see in other race classes.

Photo: A1 Team Netherlands

This morning's lap times:

1  FRANCE          1'45.676
2  GREAT BRITAIN   1'45.743   +0.067
3  NETHERLANDS     1'45.808   +0.132
4  IRELAND         1'45.999   +0.323
5  ITALY           1'46.047   +0.371
6  GERMANY         1'46.154   +0.478
7  MEXICO          1'46.182   +0.506
8  BRAZIL          1'46.206   +0.530
9  JAPAN           1'46.283   +0.607
10 SWITZERLAND     1'46.322   +0.646
11 PAKISTAN        1'46.391   +0.715
12 CZECH REPUBLIC  1'46.521   +0.845
13 SOUTH AFRICA    1'46.568   +0.892
14 USA             1'46.573   +0.897
15 MALAYSIA        1'46.581   +0.905
16 CANADA          1'46.613   +0.937
17 INDIA           1'46.774   +1.098
18 INDONESIA       1'46.783   +1.107
19 CHINA           1'46.802   +1.126
20 NEW ZEALAND     1'46.841   +1.165
21 PORTUGAL        1'46.949   +1.273
22 AUSTRALIA       1'47.106   +1.430
23 AUSTRIA         1'47.129   +1.453
24 LEBANON         1'47.179   +1.503

Thorsten Hendriks