Frentzen scores first points for Arrows in Spain

Frentzen 6th !
By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

At last - something to really shout about ! After competitive practice sessions and qualfiying the team have made it onto the World Championship score table with a 6th placed finish from Heinz-Harald Frentzen. There will be some sore heads at Leafield tomorrow !

OrangeArrows had a superb race today at Barcelona and, perhaps due to a good portion of luck, were able to score their first points of the 2002 season. Heinz-Harald Frentzen crossed the line sixth, recording a 1 point finish for the team.

Initially the race started well for the team with both drivers getting away cleanly. Frentzen lost a position into the first corner, but up until the first pit stops he and Bernoldi were running in 10th and 13th places. By the team the second stops came along Frentzen had improved to 5th, and he came back out on the track in 9th with team mate Enrique right behind him. Enrique suddenly disappeared off the time sheets towards the end of the race, and it transpired that he had suffered a hydraulics leak.

Frentzen, now in 8th, quickly caught a battle between Felipe Massa and Jenson Button. Button seemed to suffer a momentary problem letting both Massa and Frentzen through, as the German continued to pressure the Sauber driver. In the last few laps, Jarno Trulli retired from 4th position allowing Frentzen into 6th place. Try as he might the German was unable to pass Massa, but it didn't matter; the team had points on the board. Jordan and BAR are now the only teams not to have scored points finishes in 2002.

"That was great!" exclaimed Frentzen after the race. "The team has done a superb job all weekend so they thoroughly deserve this point. I’m confident that this car has the potential to be even better, we just need to work on the balance for qualifying but we have a solution in the pipeline for that.

"We have shown all weekend that we can be competitive and I had an optimistic feeling about the race. I could push hard every lap and had good battles, especially with Massa in the Sauber. It was difficult to overtake here and I did try very hard! I think we are on an upward curve now. The pressure is off to score a point but very much on to score more!! "

"That was a real shame as my race was going well today," said Enrique gloomily. "I had to retire due to a hydraulic leak. My car felt good all weekend and was running well in the race. I’m very happy that the team got its first point as it proved we are all heading in the right direction."

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director, OrangeArrows "Heinz-Harald dropped a place at the start and was struggling initially with understeer. We lost out to Panis in the first pit-stop but after that the car ran extremely well. Heinz-Harald did a brilliant job today to run against the big boys. Enrique’s race was all going to plan and he did a great job keeping Villeneuve at bay. We’re sorry we let him down with a hydraulic leak. We’re looking forward to Austria as historically we’ve gone well there and we should have the engine upgrade from qualifying for the race. Thanks to Bridgestone for good tyres all weekend."

Tom Walkinshaw, Team Principal, OrangeArrows "Now you see why we invested in Heinz-Harald Frentzen! The car has been good all weekend, especially in race trim. I want to thank the team as they have all worked extremely hard for the last six weeks, getting us to where we are now. It is satisfying to be racing with Renault and Sauber and now we need to keep on pushing to beat them. The next step is to get the same engine upgrade for the race that we had for qualifying."