WilliamsF1 slightly improves in Saturday practice.


By Andrew Hooper
April 27 2002

   
Spanish GP Saturday Practice
 
As the teams prepared for the all important qualifying session the BMW WilliamsF1 team continued to have problems with both drivers only slightly improving on their Friday times. Ralf Schumacher would finish practice in twelfth while team-mate Montoya was in fourteenth. Both drivers were to complain about their inability to find the right balance with their cars. based on this qualifying near the front of the grid would appear to be a difficult task.

One team who was not having such problems was Ferrari with Rubens Barrichello taking turn to set the fastest time. Surprisingly his team-mate Michael Schumacher was not second but third with a best lap time of 1m:18.226.

Second went to Sauber's Nick Heidfeld with a very impressive lap time of 1m:18.144. McLaren's David Coulthard was fourth, with his MP4/17 looking much better than on Friday. Next came Renault’s Jenson Button, who was fifth fastest in his R202, followed by Arrows driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen and the second McLaren contender Kimi Raikkonen.

Sauber's Felipe Massa was eighth, followed by Enrique Bernoldi and Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan Honda. BAR’s Jacques Villeneuve was thirteenth, Jordan’s Takuma Sato, who had a spin during the session, was fifteenth, followed by Jaguar’s Pedro de la Rosa.

Jarno Trulli’s problems continue and he could only manage seventeenth, ahead of Eddie Irvine, Minardi’s Mark Webber, Mika Salo, Toyota team-mate Alan McNish, and Alex Yoong in the second Minardi Asiatech.
Driver Team (Tyres) Time Gap Laps

01. R Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:18.048 17
02. N Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:18.144 0.096 22
03. M Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:18.226 0.178 17
04. D Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:18.386 0.338 17
05. J Button Renault (M) 1:18.499 0.451 17
06. Heinz H. Frentzen Arrows-Cosworth (B) 1:18.900 0.852 21
07. K Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:18.993 0.945 20
08. F Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:19.043 0.995 16
09. O Panis BAR-Honda (B) 1:19.144 1.096 23
10. E Bernoldi Arrows-Cosworth (B) 1:19.266 1.218 27
11. G Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 1:19.319 1.271 21
12. R Schumacher BMW.WilliamsF1 (M) 1:19.367 1.319 16
13. J Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:19.468 1.420 27
14. JP Montoya BMW.WilliamsF1 (M) 1:19.574 1.526 14
15. T Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 1:20.168 2.120 25
16. P de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:20.198 2.150 27
17. J Trulli Renault (M) 1:20.484 2.436 24
18. E Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:20.799 2.751 26
19. M Webber Minardi-Asiatech (M) 1:20.963 2.915 11
20. M Salo Toyota (M) 1:21.133 3.085 20
21. A McNish Toyota (M) 1:21.219 3.171 14
22. A Yoong Minardi-Asiatech (M) 1:21.700 3.652 19
 
 
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