The Hindu : Sport : Pedro de la Rosa sets the pace

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Sunday, Jun 12, 2005

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Sport

Pedro de la Rosa sets the pace

MONTREAL: McLaren-Mercedes test driver Pedro de la Rosa of Spain set the pace in two practice sessions at the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday.

De la Rosa posted the fastest lap in the morning session of 1 minute, 16.415 seconds on the 4.3-km Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, and then lowered his time to 1:14.662 in the afternoon.

Riccardo Zonta of Brazil, test driver for Toyota, was second fastest at 1:14.858.

Fernando Alonso of Spain, who leads the Formula One drivers standings, was third quickest in his Renault at 1:15.376. Alonso won four of the first seven races this year.

Jacques Villeneuve took more than two seconds off his morning time of 1:18.732 to post the 11th-best lap of 1:16.718. Qualifying is on Saturday, and the 70-lap race is on Sunday.

Scott Speed, the U.S. test driver for Red Bull, was 15th quickest in the morning while making 22 laps — the most of any of the 23 drivers — but he spun out and stalled on a turn 15 laps into the second session and was last at 1:19.270.

Speed is the first American to drive on a F-1 race weekend since Michael Andretti in 1993. Speed will not drive in qualifying or the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Kimi Raikkonen of Finland, both with McLaren-Mercedes, were fourth and fifth best, respectively at 1:15.625 and 1:15.679.

Schumacher fifth

Seven-time race winner Michael Schumacher was fifth in the morning practice session and 16th in the second session. Schumacher has won this race three straight years, but has yet to score a victory this season.

``We are not looking too competitive here,'' Schumacher said. ``On a positive note, we got through all our programme.''

Jordan driver Narain Karthikeyan of India spun out twice in the afternoon, leaving him 20th. His bright yellow car had ``bring back hockey'' written on its side, a reference to the NHL lockout.

The Indian, who clocked 1 minute 19.791 seconds over 21 laps in the morning, improved to 1:18.234 in the later session and completed a total of 50 laps to be ahead of his team-mate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal who had hydraulic problems affecting the gearbox.

``Actually this track is a pleasant surprise. It is very smooth because it has been resurfaced and the bumps taken off. But it is slippery and dirty. We didn't have a good grip on the track in the first session as it was rather dirty and the car was quite difficult to handle,'' the 28-year-old, driving here for the first time, said.

The Indian said he learnt that precision holds the key.

``The situation improved after the first 20 minutes of the session. The last chicane is surprisingly slow. Precision is the key between some of these concrete blocks,'' Karthikeyan, who had failed to complete last race, said.

Good workout

Karthikeyan, who covered more laps in the afternoon session and was also quicker, felt it was short but a good learning track.

``It was a good two hours' work for me today. I learned a lot about this track. I had never seen it before. It looks like I completed a long distance with almost 50 laps between the morning and the afternoon session, but the circuit in fact is short,'' he said.

Karthikeyan said he was lucky to have managed safely without any damage to his car on the slippery circuit.

``Just like a number of drivers such as Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing), Kimi Raikkonen or Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Scott Speed (Red Bull Racing) or Tiago did, I spun on my seventh lap at turn 2, but was able to continue. I was lucky and have not touched the rail at all. I drove back to the garage as a safety measure to check that I had not damaged the car. I started again after the check and completed a few more laps,'' he said. ``In the very last minute of the session, I spun again on the slippery track. This circuit is very demanding for the brakes. It requires a very high brake performance. The brakes were very hot and smoking, but I just continued back to the garage. Anyway the session was over.''

The grandstands were full on a hot, humid day with a slight haze hanging over the track from forest fires burning in northern Quebec. — Agencies

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