Wurz fastest as Webber suffers hydraulic leak

It was a very short day for Mark Webber as he suffered a hydraulic fluid leak. Team mate Nico Rosberg felt at ease, even if this was the first time he was at the Shanghai Circuit. Most of the work was, as usual on Friday, done by Alex Wurz, who finished both sessions on top of the timesheets.

“We ran a largely normal Friday programme except for compensating for the adverse weather in the second session. Alex stuck to plan checking temperatures and tyres. All the new parts on the car are working well and we have quite a bit of data now to make our tyre choice. Nico did more running than usual as he hasn’t driven here before. Unfortunately on Mark’s car we had a hydraulic leak from the fuel flap, so we will attend to this tonight.”

“It was a good day today and driving was a lot of fun out there. I have never driven this circuit, and I attacked it right from the beginning. The car responded very well which means the aero update we have brought here is definitely a good step forward. In addition to this, both tyres we have chosen for this race are good and I think the tyre choice is going to be difficult for us, depending on how we apply our strategy tomorrow and on Sunday.”

“It was obviously a pretty short day for me! We only had two runs planned anyway, but we couldn’t get out for the second run because we had a hydraulic fluid leak. It didn’t really cost us a huge amount and we still have plenty of work to do tonight to check how we can improve for tomorrow. The drizzly weather today also meant the track wasn’t in its best condition, so I’m quite happy to pick up some additional running tomorrow.”

“It was interesting out there, especially because of the weather conditions and also because I was learning the track as it is my first time racing here – it’s a nice track, really good fun. Tyre choice is going to be quite tough and we will have to study everything we have learnt today to see which way we will go.”

“The Cosworth CA2006 Series 6 engine powered Alex to fastest times in both Friday practice sessions for the 2006 Shanghai Grand Prix. We had no engine problems with any of the WilliamsF1 cars today.”