Barrichello crashes Michael on top in session 1

20 minutes into the session and still no action from the Ferrari garage. Michael Schumacher is chatting with Luca Badoer in his garage as the team remains unwilling to take to the track with the conditions still not favourable. Finally the track seems to be improving as R Schumacher puts in a decent lap on dry tyres and with that the action starts in the Ferrari garage. The track is still slippery though as Ralf finds out as he spins off onto the grass. Michael is finally out on track and after straight away he is on the pace and on top of the timesheets.

Rubens Barrichello is also out on track but his session is to end in a dramatic crash. The F2002 seemed to just break away from Rubens as he came flat out round the oval, he spun into the wall on the left and the car took the full force of the impact with the left hand front and rear wheels coming off. Barrichello however is fine and makes his way back to the pits to find out what the problem was. TV replays are not the best and the start of the accident remains a mystery. The main theory of the accident is thought to be the rear left tyre or wheel failing. Overheard talking in the pitlane Rubens tells Patrick Head that he is not certain what happened and Head feels that the tyre was off the rim.

After quite a lengthy delay to recover the stranded F2002 the session once again goes green and once again the track fills up with drivers eager to start improving their lap times. Work on Barrichello’s chassis is underway straight away in the Ferrari garage as Michael also takes a very keen interest on the reasons for this failure. The investigation will continue and Ross Brawn is seen to be inspecting the broken wheel rim.

That was the session over as far as Ferrari were concerned Michael did not do any more running and having only completed 4 laps the session was pretty meaningless for Ferrari. Michael preferred to sit in the garage and talk with Luca Badoer as the team looked into the Barrichello crash, no point risking another chassis until the reasons for the off are confirmed. But amazingly nobody bettered his earlier lap time and with only 4 laps done Schumacher tops the times.