Ricardo Zonta 2005

And so to China, the final race of the season. In the first free practice, run on a slightly damp track due to the morning's mist and fog, Ricardo ran twenty four laps setting a final time of 1:35.373, enough to place him a respectable third behind his Friday rival Pedro delaRosa, and Rubens Barrichello. The second session saw him jump up a place to second, again behind de la Rosa, albeit a lot closer - the gap standing at just 0.143s. Ricardo ran twenty nine laps in the second session, setting a final time of 1:32.977.

Ricardo had this to say about his final friday session of 2005: "Overall I'm pretty happy with how today went. We were pretty competitive in terms of pace so I hope the rest of the weekend goes well for the race drivers. This morning the track was very similar to how it was last year – very dusty – but it improved as the track started to rubber in. That brings me to the end of my season of work on Fridays. They have been busy sessions but I've enjoyed driving the TF105 so it's been a fun year."

Report by Claire Epps