Frentzen 5th fastest in 1st practice at Imola

Frentzen 5th
By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

OrangeArrows had a mixed first practice today, which was dominated for the early part of the session by rain and a soaking wet track. Heinz-Harald made steady progress throughout the session to finish 5th fastest, Enrique only had two blocks of runs and finished 17th.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi were quick to take to the track once the session had started, and were 5th and 8th onto the track. At the time the rain was still falling and the track was completely awash with standing water everywhere.

Probably as a result of the conditions, the team didn't venture out again until 15 minutes of the session had gone. Heinz-Harald was the first Arrows runner to put in a timed lap and a time of 1.51.043 slotted him into 2nd place behind the Jordan of Takuma Sato. Enrique was quick the take to the track after his team mate, and as Frentzen recovered from a sideways slide, dropped into 3rd position. Heinz-Harald pitted after his sliding incident lap.

After 25 minutes of the session had elapsed, the rain started to ease off, giving some hope that the track conditions might improve slightly. By now other drivers had posted times and Frentzen and Bernoldi were now 11th and 12th. 10 minutes later that had become 14th and 16th, with Mark Webber's Minardi quicker in 11th !

Around the 40th minute, Heinz-Harald takes to the track again and immediately improves to 10th. His pits quickly, and is back out again within a few minutes to jump up to 6th. Again he pits quickly. It appears his strategy is much like a qualifying session, hopefully improving the car after each run.

His next run netts him 4th, 2.015 seconds slower than current fastest driver Michael Schumacher. Frentzen's next run is better and he moves up into 3rd, now 1.441 slower. The track is still very wet at this time, with all runners still using full wet tyres, but the conditions are still improving slowly.

In the 55th minute Enrique makes it back out onto the track, after a long spell in the garage. His first laps move him up to 20th from 22nd, and after a further 3 timed laps he managed to improve to 19th. Enrique stayed out on the track almost until the end of the session and managed another 3 timed laps, improving to 17th.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the first practice session in 5th place, with a quickest lap of 1.39.158, 1.672 seconds slower than Michael Schumacher. Enrique Bernoldi's 17th fastest lap was a 1.43.105 which he managed after completing 12 laps.