The morning free practice session’s times did not reflect what the new Ferrari could do during pre qualifying and Schumacher was only 15th quick with Barrichello 10th. Both cars were quick early during the practice, but in my opinion, slowed as the team worked on race setups.

The McLaren of David Coulthard was pretty quick in 4th position during practice, but Raikkonen in the 2nd McLaren was not so quick back in 18th place. I also think that the team was working on setup for the race for Kimi and raw speed for DC. Mark Webber in the Jaguar placed himself in 7th during both practice and pre qualifying. The rumor mill has Pizzonia not seeing the end of the season with Jaguar due to lack of performance. A newer rumor has Ralph Firman under heavy pressure by Jordan for replacement by Eddie Irvine for the same reason. He managed only an 18th during pre qualifying leaving little time to impress the team.

The Toyota team has reason to be satisfied with their driver’s and car’s performances seeing Da Matta in 4th and Panis in 6th. Neither Williams did well despite Ralf taking the top spot in practice. Pre qualifying finds Ralf 11th and Montoya 14th. England’s Jenson Button in the BAR should be delighted to have put himself 7 spots ahead of arch rival and teammate Jacques Villeneuve who managed 12th spot.

The pre qualifying order is as follows: 1 M Schumacher/Ferrari 1’17.130s,2 Trulli/Renault,3 Barrichello/Ferrari,4 Da Matta/Toyota,5 Button/BAR,6 Panis/Toyota,7 Webber/Jaguar,8 Raikkonen/McLaren,9 Coulthard/McLaren,10 Alonso/Renault,11 R Schumacher/Williams,12 Villeneuve/BAR,13 Pizzonia/Jaguar,14 Montoya/Williams,15 Fisichella/Jordan,16 Frentzen/Sauber,17 Heidfeld/Sauber,18 Firman/Jordan,19 Verstappen/Minardi and 20 Wilson/Minardi 1’21.100s, almost 4 seconds off the Ferrari’s time.

The session was run under ideal conditions and this is predicted to remain all weekend. No incidents occurred and the Spanish driver Fernando Alonso commanded the attention of the crowd with his 10th place effort.

Article by: Tony Moffett