Everyone within Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro was expecting a tough weekend here in Monza, based on the results of last week’s test at this track. However, it is fair to say that twelfth place for Michael Schumacher and sixteenth for Rubens Barrichello after the two hours of free practice, paints a gloomier picture than might actually be the case.

The world champion in fact lost track time as, trying a new car set-up which evidently did not bring any advantage, he spun off the track halfway through the afternoon session. As the man himself pointed out, the most important thing was that the tyres were undamaged in the incident and so he will be able to use them again tomorrow morning. As for Rubens, the Brazilian found that his F2005 was a different animal today than the one he had driven at the test last week, his main complaint being a lack of balance. So, plenty of work this afternoon and evening for the engineers and mechanics, as they analyse all the data and decide on a course of action to improve the cars, prior to tomorrow’s free practice and afternoon qualifying session.

As usual, it was a Friday-only driver who topped the time sheet in the shape of Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta. He was followed by another dominant showing from McLaren-Mercedes, in the order Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa. Williams seem to have cars that suit this track and their two drivers complete the top six, with Mark Webber ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

With all the teams having done high mileages here last week, several drivers chose to save engine miles and do as little running as possible today, settling for doing just enough to assess their two different tyre types. On the subject of engines, the two Ferraris are running different programmes, as Barrichello has a brand new engine which is scheduled to do this weekend and next week’s Belgian Grand Prix, while Schumacher is already on his second race weekend, having changed the 053 in the back of his F2005, after qualifying in Turkey a fortnight ago.

Jean Todt: “Today’s programme was slightly different to usual, in that we had already tested at this track last week. As usual, the priority was to compare the two types of tyre provided by Bridgestone. Times from free practice are not an accurate reflection of the relative strengths of the teams, as we do not know what fuel loads the others were running, so studying the data will give us the more worthwhile information. Having said that, we know that our package will have difficulty in fighting for victory in this Italian Grand Prix, which we have won for the last three years. We have to work along with Bridgestone to get out of this situation. I hope we will see some improvement in the final three races of the season.”
 

Michael Schumacher: “When you are not as competitive as you want to be, you try everything you can to improve and my spin was partly the result of that. I made some changes to the set-up but it made the car a bit unstable which made me slide off the track. It was not a heavy impact, as I was already at the corner exit. We have lost some track time, but it is not too important as we have tested enough here. The important thing is that the tyres are not damaged so I can use them again. A thank you to the marshals at the corner as they were all very nice, asking me if I was thirsty and wanted a drink.”

Rubens Barrichello: “We have a lot of work to do. The balance of the car was not good and we will have to find out why by analysing the data acquired over the two hours of free practice. At last week’s test, the situation seemed much better than it has done today. We knew it would be a difficult weekend, but we will give it our all to try and please our fans.”

Ross Brawn: “It was not an ideal start to the Monza race weekend, as we lost Michael’s car out on track in the middle of the second session. There were still a couple of things we wanted to check out after last week’s test at this circuit. We have some more improvements to make to the set-up, but generally we are not looking too bad. With Rubens, we have no balance on the car and we must now try and understand why that is. He only drove on the first day of the test, when the balance of the car was much better so we will have to look at every detail to understand why we have lost that balance.”

Free practice - First session: Michael Schumacher: 8th 1.23.739 5 laps chassis 249; Rubens Barrichello: 11th 1.24.196 6 laps chassis 248; Temperatures: air 27/28 °C, track 31/33 °C

Free practice – Second session: Michael Schumacher: 12th 1.22.749 9 laps chassis 249; Rubens Barrichello: 16th 1.23.213 19 laps chassis 248; Temperatures: air 31 °C, track 41 °C