Frentzen fastest - Bourdais a surprise guest

More track time
By Huw Alban
July 11 2002

The Arrows team continued their 2002 development programme at Valência today, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen setting a blistering pace to record the fastest time of the day. A guest appearance for the team today was F3000 star Sébastien Bourdais.

Frentzen took the wheel of the A23 test car for the morning session only and, according to news sources, that car ran reliably all morning allowing the German the opportunity to set his scorching pace. The Arrows pace was matched by the weather as Sébastien took over for the afternoon session. The team did not intend for him to complete a test programme today, but simply to get used to driving a Formula 1 car.

“I’m very pleased with what Sébastien did today. He was calm and professional throughout the day and listened to what we were telling him,” Graham Taylor, OrangeArrows’ Chief Race Engineer told F1-live.com. “He was up to speed in the slow corners very quickly and his speed in the fast corners will improve with experience. Overall he did a very good job for us.”

Sébastien is due to complete the team’s test programme tomorrow.

Thursday’s times from Valência:

1. Heinz-Harald Frentzen - Arrows - 1:12.505 - 41 laps
2. Giancarlo Fisichella - Jordan - 1:12.795 - 92 laps
3. Fernando Alonso - Renault - 1:13.260 - 75 laps
4. Felipe Massa - Sauber - 1:13.715 - 104 laps
5. Marc Gené - Williams - 1:14.065 - 106 laps
6. Sébastien Bourdais - Arrows - 1:15.719 - 25 laps