Frentzen flies to 2nd spot in Spain

Enrique 6th
By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

Todays practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, is by far and above the teams strongest performance of the year. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi finished the sessions in the top 6, with Frentzen threatening to steal the top slot from Michael Schumacher.

The two OrangeArrows cars made an immediate impression early in the first practice session, and thankfully remained quick throughout both the 1 hour sessions. In addition both cars ran reliably, and it has to be said that the team look in very strong shape for the race on Sunday. Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished today in 2nd position, with Enrique not far behind in 6th. The big question now is whether a similar performance can be achieved in qualifying trim.

"I think we made a definite step forward at Silverstone last week," Frentzen said after the session. "We are certainly going in the right direction set up-wise now. We are also very much enjoying an upgrade from Cosworth. Overall a constructive and trouble-free day and we hope for more of the same tomorrow."

Although a tad slower, Enrique Bernoldi was also pleased with his days work. "I had a good day today, improving the car steadily as we went through the sessions. The car feels good here and we have made a lot of progress. We did a lot of work with the tyres and have made our decision on those."

"We're happy with the result today and the new front wing we ran last week is a definite step forward. We made some mistakes in testing here in February but we have learnt from those," added Mike Coughlan, Technical Director. "At Silverstone last week we found our direction and we are continuing to follow that direction. We're also delighted to have a significant upgrade from Cosworth for this weekend."