By Huw Alban
March 10 2006

I cannot tell you how excited I was this morning. I rushed downstairs like a 5 year old on Christmas day, and fired up every live timing screen I could find on the internet. My excitement has deflated some now though… Unfortunately all we can see back here in the UK are the various live timing screens, and they are not the best source from which to write.

Markus Winkelhock was first out for the team, presumably in the T-car, and posted what was described on the forum as ‘sightseeing’ times. Still it dispels somewhat my fears about the T-car not being ready to be used this weekend.

By the time 40 minutes of the session had elapsed, Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers had only completed an installation lap each, and Markus had completed a best time of 1.38.465 after 9 laps.

With 12 minutes to go the team suddenly burst into life with both race drivers on track together, shortly followed by Markus. Both race drivers traded fastest lap times with each other, but unfortunately remained near the bottom of the timesheets. Despite posting green sector times consistently right up to the end of the session, the three Midland drivers finished just ahead of Super Aguri in 13th, 14th and 15th positions (see times below).

Now, we have to be careful here because we’ve no idea what the team were doing in terms of fuel loads etc. These times could just be symptomatic of the conditions they were practicing for. Rest assured that we will be glued to the timing screens for the second practice session, and we’ll let you know what happens.

Full list of times from Bahrain Practice 1:

1. 38 KUBICA BMW Sauber M 1'32"183 211.354 Km/h
2. 35 WURZ Williams Cosworth B 1'32"219 + 0'00"036
3. 3 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'33"401 + 0'01"218
4. 5 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'33"422 + 0'01"239
5. 15 KLIEN RedBull Ferrari M 1'34"858 + 0'02"675
6. 40 JANI Toro Rosso Cosw. M 1'34"875 + 0'02"692
7. 4 MONTOYA McLaren Mercedes M 1'34"902 + 0'02"719
8. 6 MASSA Ferrari B 1'34"922 + 0'02"739
9. 14 COULTHARD RedBull Ferrari M 1'35"016 + 0'02"833
10. 20 LIUZZI Toro Rosso Cosw. M 1'35"078 + 0'02"895
11. 37 DOORNBOS RedBull Cosworth M 1'35"290 + 0'03"107
12. 21 SPEED Toro Rosso Cosw. M 1'35"369 + 0'03"186
13. 18 MONTEIRO Midland Toyota B 1'36"560 + 0'04"377
14. 19 ALBERS Midland Toyota B 1'36"922 + 0'04"739
15. 39 WINKELHOCK Midland Toyota B 1'37"909 + 0'05"726
16. 22 SATO S. Aguri F1 Honda B 1'38"141 + 0'05"958
17. 23 IDE S. Aguri F1 Honda B 1'40"766 + 0'08"583