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The 2nd Friday Practice Session for Round 16 of the 2004 F1 season at Shanghai.
Transcript
00:18Call it the Grand Prix of Irony, the world's most unashamedly communist society spending the equivalent of hundreds of millions
00:25of dollars to lure the world's most unashamedly capitalist sport.
00:30Formula One racing. Welcome to the inaugural Formula One Grand Prix of China.
00:36Hello, everyone. I'm Bob Varsha. Friday practice now firmly underway, the second of two one-hour sessions on this opening
00:42day at the brand-new circuit in Shanghai.
00:45Let's take a look at some of the highlights of this morning's first one-hour practice with Steve Matchett and
00:50David Hobbs.
00:51Pick your headline. First, there is this fabulous new Shanghai International racetrack, the second new circuit in Formula One this
00:58year.
00:58Ralph Schumacher is back with Williams BMW, having recovered from his Indianapolis injuries.
01:04And that was Jacques Villeneuve, 97 world champion, who is driving the Renault for the last three races, replacing Yarno
01:10Trulli.
01:11Here's Dutchman Robert Dornbos, a Formula 3000 graduate who is in at Jordan as the Friday tester, while Timo Glock
01:18moves up to replace Giorgio Pantano.
01:20And here we see Anthony Davidson in the re-livered BAR Honda, the 555 cigarette brand.
01:26Here is Ralph Schumacher making his return to track after that back industry at the US Grand Prix back in
01:31June.
01:33And he, in fact, ends up second on the day.
01:35And then former world champion, as Bob Riley says, in 97, Jack Villeneuve in the Renault gets it all locked
01:41up.
01:41No damage to the chassis, but look at this.
01:43The reigning world champion, Michael Schumacher, some sort of electrical problem at the end of the pit out, manages to
01:49get the car back into the pits.
01:52But the world champion is not at all pleased with the media coverage.
01:57Well, having arranged Ferrari, he decided he would rearrange the pit lane.
02:02Poor boy, he doesn't like the press peering at him like that.
02:06There you see the session one times at the upper left.
02:08Michael Schumacher wound up 15th in the session with a lap at 1 minute 37.300 seconds, having done just
02:1511 laps in the session.
02:17Not unusual for the front line racing drivers.
02:20As usual, the majority of the laps being turned in by the Friday only testers.
02:25But the two guys who did least of all, Kimi Räikkönen and David Coulthard in the two McLaren Mercedes.
02:31Räikkönen and Coulthard both only doing five laps and ending up, as we saw there, he takes the Coulthard.
02:40With Belgian Bas Lienders in the Minardi.
02:47As you can see, the circuit is very flat, bumpy in spots, and very wide.
02:55It's for a brand new circuit, those bumps are pretty bad, especially on the approach to some of the corners.
03:00You can see the chatter marks there, the tyres are made on locking up on those corners.
03:04Right there as well, actually, just to approach that section of the track.
03:07We've seen all the cars suffering with it.
03:38In this morning's session, we're looking at the Williams Chate.
03:39We're checking that up and chucking it out at the back of the diffuser all morning long.
03:44Yeah, I'll be doing it this session, too, I'm sure.
03:46You can see some of your board marks on the road there, those yellow marks as it's going to turn
03:51one.
03:52There's the winner two weeks ago.
03:53Winner in Italy.
03:56This third race win from Pole.
04:04Yeah, he had a heck of a run, didn't he, two weeks ago?
04:07Started on the intermediate tyres, shot up into the lead, passed on the fifth lap.
04:11Came in, changed track in the old Ferrari way, and shuffled himself up to the win,
04:17and Michael Schumacher, who spun on the opening lap, managed to come through in second.
04:22This is Ralph Schumacher, fully healed from the cracked vertebra he suffered,
04:26brought in his backward impact into the wall at Indianapolis back in June.
04:32It's interesting, the world press, talk about optimism.
05:02Partizanta's name pops up at the lower right box, that means he had just gone to P1 before
05:07Ralph Schumacher will no doubt knock him from that perch, he's quicker at the second intermediate.
05:12This is going through turn 13, a long, long, long right-hander,
05:15and look at this, the longest straight on the track is not the start-finish straight,
05:19but there's a back, this straight which runs, uh,
05:23out of the back, got a yellow flag for something.
05:25You'll notice that a couple of these turns have banking.
05:29There's those bumps, boy, oh boy.
05:32The Williams looks a bit unsettled over there, but still an old.
05:35Schumacher and Montoya were second and third fastest this morning in the first session.
05:41Getting back to that point, after Ferrari came back from a terrible start
05:46to a miraculous 1-2 finish at Monza.
05:49Some of the other teams speaking in the media said,
05:52aha, we flushed out Ferrari.
05:55Oh, there's Anthony Davidson, that's the reason for the yellow flag.
05:58That's a shame, he was quick this morning, and, uh, of course, that'll be the end of his day now.
06:02Well, the end of his weekend.
06:03Oh, maybe not.
06:04That's the new, totally blue BAR paint job.
06:09Lucky Strike Cigarettes, the tobacco product on the other BAR race cars,
06:13is a sister brand to 555.
06:17Luckies are not sold in China.
06:19555 is, hence the delivery change.
06:22Well done, that man.
06:23He didn't stall it, and all that thought.
06:25I'm sure he thought his day was done.
06:26They pushed him out, and off he goes again.
06:28That brings up another cute point about Italy,
06:30where Fernando Alonso went off into the kitty litter in his Renault
06:34and was not pushed out by the course marshals.
06:37We mentioned on the air that that was very unlikely the course marshals did
06:41in Germany at the Nürburgring a year ago
06:44when they did push Michael Schumacher out of the kitty litter,
06:46and afterwards the Renault team and Alonso went to great lengths to point out,
06:50well, I guess only the Ferraris get pushed out of the kitty litter.
06:56Well, I think the mechanic, the course marshals just didn't realize
07:00what they could do, and they weren't prepared to get out there too close to the track,
07:04but it was pretty unfortunate for Alonso.
07:06Yes, you can't blame the mechanic for that one, David.
07:08I saw you attempting to there.
07:11Shift blame onto the team.
07:13Well, one tries to shift blame where it belongs.
07:16Yeah, Michael Schumacher on a run here.
07:18The teams after Italy said,
07:20Aha, we got Ferrari right where we want them.
07:22We made them show what they really have,
07:24and the media took up that theme,
07:26saying more recently that the guess now is that Ferrari,
07:30for the first 14 races of the season,
07:32haven't been showing what they truly have.
07:35When Michael spun back to 15th,
07:37and Rubens Botticello had to switch tires and pit strategy,
07:40they just changed the engine mapping,
07:43unleashed a few more ponies from that Ferrari V10,
07:47and hey, Presto, one, two, three.
07:48Wow, too, there we just saw a great demonstration
07:50as he breaks into that Turn 14 there,
07:53over those bumps,
07:54which we just saw Ralph Schumacher going over.
07:56There he clicks off the quickest lap.
07:58The Ferrari looked much more stable over those bumps.
08:02Let's look at one Pablo Montoya.
08:04Wow, and there's the opposite right there.
08:06You see how the back of the car on the right dipped down?
08:09They've really got it way too soft.
08:14Oh, and around goes Riccardo's on top.
08:17I'm way too stiff on the Toyota.
08:19Finding it somewhere in the middle, really.
08:22There's Antonio Pisonia,
08:23who stepped out of the Williams BMW
08:25to allow Ralph to step back in.
08:27Michael Schumacher is quickest.
08:32Speed Channel's coverage of the FIA Formula One World Championship
08:35is brought to you by BMW.
08:38BMW, the ultimate driving machine.
08:44The Chinese Grand Prix trackback
08:46is brought to you by Porsche.
08:47Porsche, there is no substitute.
08:55Welcome back to live Speed Channel coverage of practice
08:59for the historic inaugural Formula One Grand Prix of China.
09:03I'm Bob Barsher with David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.
09:06Robert Dornbosch of the Netherlands
09:08had the honor of being the first car on track
09:10for practice here in China.
09:12Takuma Sato in the BAR has another distinction.
09:16The first man to blow an engine.
09:20And it went big time, didn't it?
09:22Yes, in the Sato established form.
09:25It was a severe blow.
09:26When you look here,
09:27you'll see a lot of fluid on the track behind him
09:29as he goes down.
09:30It blew up at a very convenient spot
09:32right on entry to pit in.
09:34There he is.
09:35Stopped.
09:36He said get out of the car
09:37and the marshals come running over.
09:39There is a little lick of flame at the back of the car
09:42and then the marshals really let go
09:43with their fire extinguishers.
09:45Completely smothered the whole car.
09:46Which will more than anything
09:47annoy the mechanics beyond belief
09:50because it's incredibly corrosive,
09:52that powder,
09:53the extinguisher powder
09:54that the marshals use.
09:56Affects all things around the wiring looms
09:58and the electrical connections.
09:59A lot of work.
10:00Of course, they want to put the fire out
10:02but only the minimum.
10:03Please, only the minimum.
10:05And that will cost to Kumisato
10:0710 spots on the starting grid.
10:09We bring you qualifying tomorrow
10:12here on Speed Channel
10:13at 2 a.m. Eastern time.
10:16Felipe Massa in the Sauber
10:17is now the fastest car in the session.
10:22Michael set the second,
10:24actually the fastest middle sector on that lap
10:27but then aborted it toward the end.
10:29While we have a moment,
10:29let's take a closer look at this track
10:31with the Porsche track map.
10:34Well, there you can see
10:35it's a pretty complex looking track.
10:383.38 miles per round.
10:41So that'll be 56 laps for the Grand Prix.
10:43There you see the start-finish line
10:44down to that Turn 1.
10:45Typical Herman Tilke trademark.
10:47That long, long right-hander
10:48just like Malaysia.
10:49Slips into Turn 2, 3 and 4
10:51all follow on one another.
10:53Down to 6.
10:54Opportunity of overtaking there
10:55but it's pretty rough on the approach.
10:57Then 7, 8, 9.
10:58The road meanders along a bit there.
11:00Turn 11.
11:00You've got some overtaking opportunities.
11:02Then out of 13
11:03which is quite steeply backed
11:04on the exit down to 14
11:06where there should be
11:06some real overtaking opportunities.
11:0916 is probably just a little bit
11:10on the quick side
11:11and people will be taking
11:12the line through there
11:12and of course that's where
11:14the pit end as well.
11:15So all in all,
11:16pretty interesting track
11:17these guys to race on
11:18but today covered in dust
11:19and surprisingly bumpy
11:20for a brand new surface.
11:26The shape of the track
11:28resembles the Mandarin character
11:30Shang
11:31which loosely translated
11:34means to rise above.
11:44To share.
11:45Touche.
11:48Touche.
11:50Kimi Raikkonen
11:51only did five laps this morning
11:52in the typical McLaren way
11:54of keeping their laps
11:55to an absolute minimum
11:56during these practice sessions.
11:58Still a bit nervous
11:59about the reliability
12:00of their Mercedes engines.
12:01well that is especially curious here because they have so many tire compounds to go through
12:06to try to find the optimum that they have to declare tomorrow morning yeah they need to do
12:11the running there's no doubt but in those opening laps probably for the first 10 to 15 minutes there's
12:16so much dust and rubbish on the track that you're not gonna get no useful data you can run and
12:21you
12:22can't really prove anything Bridgestone brought no fewer than five different dry weather combinations
12:32from which the teams choose two to test and then pick one for the balance of the weekend
12:38now the longest straight here coming down to turn 14. there should be some opportunities
12:45for overtaking here
12:50a bit like the adelaide hairpin at magnicor very tight
13:01comes to start finish straight away there's magnificent grandstands
13:06the track will seat 200 000 people
13:13turn one
13:14just goes on forever we're told it's a sellout for the race the ticket price is between 45 and 450
13:23equivalent u.s and in a country where the average family earns about two thousand dollars a year
13:30pretty remarkable that they've managed to sell all those seats
13:34well in terms of facilities the guys i've been talking to up and down the pit lane i've all said
13:41the facilities are absolutely staggering i mean you expect it because it's a state-of-the-art
13:46circle it's just been built but they're saying we just we've got more space than we can fill and for
13:50formula one team it's very very difficult very rare that you'd hear them say that especially on the
13:56flyaway race where they take so much gear with them yeah absolutely
14:01yeah because no race transporters of course on these flyaway races into continental races
14:07everything off the truck and packed into flight cases so absolutely everything every last nut bolt and washer
14:13is stored in flight cases in those carriages we'll be back with more friday practice continues from the shanghai international
14:20circuit
14:40the world's most populous nation about 12 million people the city center is about an hour's drive from the new
14:48shanghai international racing circuit
14:49this is fernando alonso who has a new teammate and 97 world champion jack villeneuve this weekend
14:56interesting that renault team manager flavio briatore says he brought in villeneuve
15:01to motivate and inspire alonso and the rest of the team there is flavio with all due respect to jack
15:09villeneuve
15:10motivating others has not been one of the strong lines on his resume in his formula one career to date
15:17no
15:18probably to if anything probably to shock alonso to to put somebody in with real pace and of course
15:25villeneuve's got that 97 championship under his belt and he has got the pace
15:30and i think that's probably what uh flavio is looking at with alonso put somebody in there to really
15:34push him to say you know we've dropped the lap time 5.3 alonso you'll have to you'll have to
15:38reach
15:38that figure yourself well we think he's got the pace because don't forget flavio briatore fired jensen
15:43button who uh last year was consistently quicker than jack villeneuve in the bar hondas they bar
15:48dropped villeneuve at the end of the year it's a year since he's driven a grand prix car and to
15:53expect
15:53him to raise the level of the team and just for just the last three races one of which is
15:57here in
15:58china where no one's ever been before i think he's asking rather a lot of the bloke he is 14th
16:03in the
16:03morning session he is currently 17th in this session and alonso is currently third and
16:09and panis is uh up into fifth spot in the toyota robin's barichello just takes
16:16the fastest time in the session and have a look at the tire on the ferrari you'll notice it's a
16:22lot
16:22of more a lot more camber back in again which is exactly the same specifications we had in hungary
16:27remember when uh bridgson introduced that new specification tire for the slow speed circuits
16:32ferrari said they wouldn't use it the two high speed circuits because it hadn't been tested
16:36because of the summer layoff and the testing well i believe that bridgestone have got that
16:42tire here again i was looking at the ferrari chassis in the morning the first hour long session and
16:46the camber is quite acute on the front and the rear of the car so i think for a ferrari
16:51reverting to
16:52that what was an incredibly successful bridgestone compound there you see that's just sort of cambered
16:58a little bit more at the top than before i think that's ferrari playing around with his tire but
17:04going back to the renault situation for a couple of seconds they are incredibly key to take that second
17:13position in the constructors championship it's 94 points to bar 91 to renault and show how renault is
17:20committed to try and take this second position from bar they have produced two brand new lightweight
17:24chassis that they've tested two brand new cars they've built just to try and take the weight down
17:30just a couple of kilos to try and take the advantage over bar in these final three races and again
17:35i think
17:35that all plays into how they decided to bring the owner into the team as well they are very very
17:41keen
17:41to overthrow bar's position well of course they've been lead they've been in the second spot
17:46all year until last week in monza so they slipped up badly there both cars
17:51uh way out of the points truly way out of the points alonzo in the gravel and of course the
17:55bar
17:56honda's both had a very good run there it looked like jensen button might win it at one stage
18:01michael schumacher seeing where he can put his imprint on the time sheets he's already gone a
18:08second and a half quicker than he did in the first session not surprising considering this is a new track
18:13and it was very dirty when the cars first went out well that first sector is still slowing his teammate
18:18rubens barichello only just that was a bit of a bumble wasn't it a little twitch
18:24he's in a couple of those today yeah well lap time now rubens barichello is down to 135
18:31race simulation from the team seems to indicate that it should be able to squeeze a 133 out of the
18:37track if it picks up a lot they get rid of the dust over this session tomorrow morning probably not
18:43in
18:44qualifying but probably for the fastest lap of the race we could get to 133 a lot of it depends
18:49on
18:50temperature and weather conditions on race there of course we have some new telemetry this weekend
18:59and the world will also have some black screen that is the blank screen on that second second
19:07if he can maintain that he could drop in from 34s near that magic 33 oh oh
19:16yeah giving himself i guess he decided that that wasn't good enough he's gonna have another go well that
19:21was a bit radical we'll be back with more friday practice continues from the shanghai international circuit
19:42welcome back to shanghai china where jensen button continues on his way he is now the fast man
19:48in this second one hour friday practice session the order is button barichello raikkonen masa alonzo
19:56schumacher ryan briscoe the third driver for the toyota team olivier panis michael schumacher and
20:04juan pablo montoya buttons quick time 134.787 the only driver in the one minute 34 second zone thus far
20:14in turn to setting the car up around here the engineers seem to think it's about a medium
20:21downforce track there's a lot of slow speed corners which means you have to get very good traction working
20:27out of those corners and and the corners open up onto those high speed sections which puts a lot of
20:32lateral load onto the car which in sarto there obviously not taking any further part in watching sarto
20:38watching it's very disappointing actually they've built this new circuit got all that fast expense
20:44250 odd million dollars and there's not one decent corner out there i mean there's no high speed stuff
20:50anywhere it's all this mickey mouse meandering through turns one that goes to turn two and straight in the
20:57turn three and four well then you've got these two very long straights as you say that the one from
21:0213 to 14 is over a kilometer long and then onto the start finish straight which is also extremely long
21:09yeah what it's it it's a bit of a conundrum really for the engineers because there's two things you can
21:15do if you crank more downforce onto the car you can get the car to work a lot more efficiently
21:19through the slow speed corners you take the downforce off right and you've got the two long straights
21:24and you get the car to work a lot better and more efficiently down the straights and actually
21:28there's not a great deal of difference if you crank wing on or take it off what you gain in
21:31one part of the track you lose in the other and the lap time stops relatively the same there's not
21:36an awful lot you can do with it really we apologize for the continuing problems with our transmission
21:41from shanghai we were watching jack villeneuve making his way around using all of the track and then
21:46some take a quick break and be back with you shortly we hope
21:56welcome back our video and audio feed from the shanghai international circuit in china has now
22:01been restored less than 30 minutes to go in this second one hour friday practice session i'm bob
22:08marsha with steve matchit and david hobbs ralph schumacher a moment ago went to sixth place
22:13on the time sheets at a one minute thirty five point six three six second lap about eight tenths of
22:19a
22:19second slower than the session leader jensen but ricardo zonta jumps to p3 in the toyota with a 135 166
22:31antonio pizzonia there saying i could go faster than that on board with nick heidfeld
22:37the inside shoulder of that left front tire there there are no grooves left on it at all
22:42going the long way around when the extra last turn there kimmy raikkonen
22:50well hasn't he had an interesting last four races a win in belgium and he hasn't gotten any
22:55farther than lap 13 in either of the other three events
23:0115 races thus far this year and he's dropped out of eight of them
23:06beautifully wide that section of track isn't it about six cars side by side there
23:15there's a long straight look at it
23:19cleared for takeoff yeah absolutely kimmy raikkonen of course has completed
23:23far less laps this year than michael schumacher has led
23:30which is pretty good for the guy that this time last year was only one point out of the world
23:34championship league with a couple of races to go
23:41the front michelins look very wide
23:44hardly any difference between the fronts and the rear in terms of dimension
23:51that would start that business again well i'm sure legal to the regs i'm not i'm not trying to
23:55indicate that but it goes to show that some tracks the time manufacturers would like to produce a very
24:02narrow tire we were talking about this at monza the last race because you can optimize and maximize
24:07that straight line speed and not suck at the aero penalty but when you're in a track like this when
24:11you've got these tight corners around two and three and 12 and that lead on to 13 where you really
24:16need
24:17to have as much rubber on the road as possible to try and control that brick and there you go
24:22the
24:23close-up you were looking for a different car it's called a flat spot don't they call the chinese they
24:32are
24:32suffering a lot aren't they these tires around here christian clean it's the one factor
24:39that the teams can't guess at when they're doing their race simulations prior to coming out to china
24:44they're all given three-dimensional maps of the track from the circuit builders so they know
24:49the radius of the track they know the width of the track they know the length of the straights
24:53they know any elevation changes and all that sort of stuff they've programmed into their machines
24:57to give that race simulation but you don't know what the grip level is going to be like until you
25:02get to the track it's a mysterious factor x and a quick look at michelin program director pierre
25:08du pasquier looking a little originally his mouth turned down in a very yeah i'm not surprised looking
25:14at the tire degradation on the michelins around here this could be a good lap from reikkonen
25:19the second intermediate of the session he won 0.139 seconds
25:29now this first corner just goes on forever yeah and that is putting a tremendous amount of load
25:35on that left front particularly there are nine right handers here and seven left so the
25:41right hand corner is giving that left front or both left side tires some stick
25:47and a lot of them as you can see from this one are very tight corners
25:52and then there you see how the track opens up you come out of that corner tight corner you want
25:57to
25:57get on the throttle as fast as possible to get going along that section of the track and that
26:02really does load up the side walls of the tire that's a fairly quick corner that left-hander yeah
26:07this track is a remarkable engineering treatment it's it's all built on what was essentially a swamp
26:15all of the elevation changes you see were sculpted from the landscape and the pit complex area and
26:22the grandstands sit on literally hundreds of concrete piles driven down into the water table
26:29some to a distance of 80 meters in order to support you imagine a pile it's 80 meters long i
26:36mean
26:36she was like drilling for oil absolutely at the end of it's getting hot 50 000 of them total
26:42are scattered around this 2.8 square mile facility and the the paddock facilities as you mentioned
26:49earlier steve match it are just exquisite each team has a little jewel box is the only way i can
26:56describe it of a building fashioned on contemporary chinese architecture connected by waterways and
27:03sidewalks and landscaping it's just fabulous yeah well kimmy reichland jumps to the top we're looking
27:10at his teammate davy kultaar now but kimmy reichland has still only done uh 12 laps in the whole day
27:19whereas barichello for instance has done somewhere in the region of 40.
27:24here's ron dennis surveying his domain mclaren posted a large loss this year no doubt due to
27:30the fact that they had to roll out a second car right now kimmy reichland as mclaren tops all in
27:37shanghai welcome back to friday practice for the first formula one chinese grand prix from shanghai
27:48jensen button just set the fastest first sector of the session
27:55so
28:20big jump to half a second there and up there 134 one getting down near your 33 steve
28:26he is closing in yeah fastest in sector one sector two to see the sector three lap time
28:32uh you know who that was in the salver but that was close
28:45is giancarlo fisichella who could not get out of the way of the oncoming var
28:51yes 24.9 sector one 27.9 sector two and 41.2 in sector three
28:58the fastest three like he just forgot which way the track went alonzo taking the long way around
29:03that one yeah punch up a new radio station or something and forgot the track went that that
29:09i was going to add while we're on board there with button when he came out around that last
29:13left-hand turn on to the start finish straight the car looked really good i mean he just clipped the
29:19the curb just made a really nice job but a lot of people as we've seen driven right off there
29:23including montoya a couple of times and alonzo there big time this is a new car looked good for
29:28there a new lightweight renault chassis with new front and rear wings as they struggle to try to
29:34launch themselves back past bar into second in the constructors championship
29:42let's have another look at it oh big old drift see the circuit drops away a little bit there doesn't
29:49it if you come into that last corner the track sort of dips away the camber changes and i think
29:53that
29:53catches a lot of the guys now look at it there yeah on to the inside of that uh corner
29:59well you
29:59suddenly lose all that grip the track's giving you some grip it drops away and suddenly you've got
30:03an adverse camber it is well you're just going to get that corner just right
30:09great reflexes in the spanish jack villeneuve has done 15 laps in this session
30:16his teammate alonzo has done 17 but alonzo's seventh villeneuve is 18th at the moment
30:23so if he's going to motivate the team that's right exactly
30:30the only name you did not see there was takuma sato
30:35on the engine to let go early in the session
30:39and talking of engines bob we're talking about ferrari's unbelievable near unbelievable performance
30:46in monza the general feeling is that this engine has been set on on the engine mapping scale
30:54the drivers are a little rotary switch on the steering wheel and throughout the rest of the
30:58season up until then it's been set on position zero which is kind of you know effectively cruise
31:04mode if you will in in monza they actually put it up to position two which is a very aggressive
31:10strategy on mapping it's kill more fuel and more ignition timing advance and it certainly gives more
31:17power but at the expense of potential reliability but it just goes to show what ferrari have got in hand
31:23if
31:24they can win both championships and effectively running at 80 percent of the car's capability
31:31john talk no matter how fast the ferraris go he will still look like the worried uncle we'll be back
31:44this one pablo montoya currently 10th in the bmw williams
31:54no doubt about the horsepower of the bmw montoya's teammate antonio pezonja at monza last week set the
32:01all-time fastest straight line speed recorded in formula one history 229.9 miles an hour
32:11that's good enough for 230.
32:38is that bending down as he goes fast oh don't say that david harper you watch when he slows down
32:45it's just the rear wing elements that they're testing
32:48who wants to come up
32:53like an airplane wing yeah it definitely moves up and down with the speed
32:58of course this man set the quickest lap in formula one history at monza in pre-qualifying on saturday
33:06averaging right about what's the number 163 miles an hour yeah just a hair under
33:13as mr redmond as in brian redmond pointed out to me on the phone the other day the cop of
33:17the north said
33:18don't forget lad you lads kept talking about the fastest lap ever at 162. jack yix did a lap at
33:25163
33:26at spa in the ferrari sports car back in 1971 he was his teammate
33:33that was i think we had said that i think he thought we were in blight it was the fastest
33:38ever road course
33:41we wouldn't do that brian
33:44not deliberately i'm just gonna say not intentionally anyway
33:48i see that banking at the back so china now joins indianapolis among formula one circuits with banked turns
34:14olivier panis running out the string in his formula one career
34:19he has three races left before he moves into retirement and remains with the toyota team in another capacity
34:25and that means no french drivers on the grid barring the arrival of some
34:32french talent next year perhaps champ car star sebastian bordet who knows but
34:37should there be no french driver out there that will be a national calamity i'm sure that is a national
34:43moment of pride look at that fastest in that sector first time a toyota has done that for a long
34:49time
34:51olivier panis will end his career with 159 grand prix just one shy of 160.
35:10this is obviously going to be a pretty good lap this could jump him into p2
35:17it's currently he's currently lying 13th
35:27he said he could be in the top two or three his former teammate cristiano domada spoke with the
35:43brazilian press back home and really slammed his former team who slipped back to sixth
35:51this is his teammate ricardo zanta domada said he would not return to formula one even if you gave him
35:57michael's ferrari to race well they're so disgusted for things
36:24those front tires look pretty good at the moment they do and the car was understeering there as well
36:28yeah that's what made me think of it really just a little bit there too
36:37it's pretty neutral through there it does
36:42this is a hard track to learn it's really kind of featureless once you get away from these big grandstands
36:51yeah being so flat it's hard to see where you're going certainly around the corner
36:58123s at that point it's going to be
37:03around about 130
37:07five low fives
37:16there's mike gascoigne the battle technical director at toyota a lot of investment in this
37:23effort but they haven't seen a lot of results time is growing short we'll be back
37:33in this
37:33welcome back to friday practice
37:38notice that white line at the pit out that is the no-go zone and all three of us are
37:43predicting
37:43that's going to create problems it's very close to the racing line down in turn one
37:49it'll be interesting during the race watching cars come out after pit stops and get back into traffic
37:55it is it's a not it's an old thing isn't it bob it it's almost like an afterthought i mean
37:59the
37:59circuit's brand new i have no idea why they designed it like that and push the line so far over
38:06the other side of the track that may well be modified for next year's race
38:12i can see no reason why in theory they couldn't do what they did at silverstone and carry the
38:17pit exit around that first corner so the cars exit on corner two
38:24exactly great idea take it around the corner like the silverstone circuit yeah turn them loose
38:29on it works there i mean silverstone originally they used to come out way before that but
38:35it works there actually thinking about silverstone and looking at
38:39the facilities they've got here in china that's what as much as i i adore the silverstone circuit and want
38:46to be a british grand prix that's what silverstone's got to look at these countries are prepared to
38:51invest umpteen million dollars to produce these facilities that's what silverstone's up against
38:56if you want to keep the race now of course you could say the same for in malaria you could
38:59say the
38:59same for spa the facilities there nothing to write home about but boy oh boy and these are really
39:05monte carlo oh yeah well monte carlo's of course invested some money now hasn't it jensen button
39:11the first two sectors he was off and cracked out that last sector obviously very quickly down to 34
39:18177 so really close to your 33s
39:23and did it all in that last sector john carlo fizichella has jumped up to fourth in the sauber
39:28so the order is button raikkonen barichello fizichella ralph schumacher michael schumacher
39:35riccardo zonta olivier panis ryan briscoe and the toyota and felipe masa at the top 10.
39:43and then this man david koolthar he's been doing a lot of break locking up today
39:50david when you were talking about button doing so well on that last sector this track the china track
39:56it's got two very distinct sectors unlike we were looking at spar a couple of weeks ago
40:00and mons you say well each sector of the track is pretty much exactly the same it's really a
40:05series of straights connected by short sections of track here sector two is very much the twist
40:10in winding what i would call the infield section really and i think we're going to see two distinct
40:17fastest sector times here the ones that are the cop the cars that are running more wing will start to
40:21show their pace around that sector too and button when they're taking the wing off the bar really
40:26to use that straight that long i mean it's over a kilometer long really to use that straight to its
40:32full effect see all the pit boards poking out from the pit lane fence everybody is on track right now
40:38with the exception of rubens barriquello that man to do misado robert doernbosch the dutchman who is
40:45now the friday driver for jordan
40:49it was anthony davidson recall he was off track and on earlier pushed out of the gravel
40:56and davidson fastest of the day in that first sector with a 24-6 buttons time through the first sector
41:02was a well it was a 25-2 the 24-6 for davidson is quick very quick and he's he's
41:12done it in the
41:12second sector that winding section well he's only up to 26 now this is going to be a quick lap
41:17unless
41:17he messes this corner up this is going to be top this is going to be number one is this
41:20going to take
41:20us into the 33s yep well in 33-2 wow there you go notice those front stub axles still using
41:33that
41:33mechanical wheel spin anti-wheel spin system pierre de pasquier on the right and of course anthony davis
41:45has done all his terrific uh friday testing and has uh been the top of the time sheets a number
41:50of times
41:50this year and christian clean into the pit lane at record-breaking speed the fastest he's been all
41:57day and anthony davidson when we look at next year's driver lineup do you hear the name of anthony davidson
42:04not once yeah you hear of old jack dylan who's struggling around still in 15th spot his last lap was
42:10a 37. and i think the i think the clue to the michelin spaces around here is see which garage
42:16pierre de
42:16pasquier standing because when mclaren were quick at the top of the time sheets earlier on pierre was
42:20standing there talking to the mclaren engineers all of a sudden bar are quick did you see how quick
42:24pierre de pasquier shot down the grid and into the bar garage and started talking to their engineers
42:32no smiles from that man dave richards the team principal at bar he was a late arrival in china
42:37having spent last week in front of the contract recognition board fighting over the rights to that
42:43man jensen button the contract recognition board three lawyers sanctioned by the fia to decide whether
42:49button will drive for williams or bar next year met talked it over decided they would adjourn
42:55and meet again october 16th the weekend of the last race of the season
43:03speed
43:08welcome back the first day of practice for the historic first formula one grand prix of china is
43:14now complete the hour went quickly gentlemen let's check the results well the top two are the var
43:20hondas of davison and button unfortunately 25th is also a var honda sato who blew up two mclaren's
43:26looking good there reichland and coutard barriquello in the first of the ferraris and then the ferrari
43:31engine sauber fiscicola ralph and michael schumacher almost identical times and then we have
43:36three toyota zonta panis and ryan briskow mate a very good day so far for for michelin is it briskow
43:44yeah and the toyota and then nasa and the sauber on the bridgestone there's a lone bridgestone
43:49runner amongst all those blue michelin the up front dry down drop right down to 18 with the heitfeld in
43:55the jordan and then bomb garner and the minardi until you get to the other bridgestone runners and the
44:00lonzo and villeneuve not doing as well as i had hoped i'm sure and the renault's there
44:06so the friday drivers will now pack up and will get set for qualifying on saturday that'll do it
44:12for our first day of coverage the 2004 chinese grand prix tune in tomorrow at 2 a.m eastern for
44:18coverage of qualifying immediately following qualifying at 3 30 a.m eastern check out inside
44:23grand prix as we preview the upcoming grand prix of china finally sunday morning live coverage of the
44:29chinese grand prix begins at 1 30 a.m eastern time that's saturday night on the west coast
44:34as always we'll start off with the accurate pre-race show and at eight o'clock straight up
44:38cars will roll off for this historic race until tomorrow's qualifying coverage i'm bob
44:45marsha for david hobbs and steve matchett we'll see you tomorrow for the first qualifying session
44:51from shanghai stay with us
44:53see you there goodbye
44:55you
44:55you
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