Limited running for WilliamsF1 Friday 1st Practice

By Andrew Hooper
July 5 2002

	British GP Friday 1st Practice
	Once again the Silverstone circuit would see rain affect the opening Friday practice for the 2002 British Grand Prix. The session started with a track that was not wet but was not suitable for dry tyres. Later in the session the track would be hit by heavy showers making any track time only valuable in terms of wet weather setup. Early in the session several drivers would use intermediates. For the BMW WilliamsF1 pair of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher their session would see them only finish with the twelfth and sixteenth fastest times respectively. Between them they only completed fifteen laps with Juan Pablo limited to just five after he suffered an engine failure. At the end of the session it would be Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello who would have the fastest time after been able to post his time early in the session. His best lap would be a 1m:33.531. As for his team-mate Michael Schumacher his session would come to an end when he, using intermediate tyres, would spin at Abbey on his installation lap. He would stall his car and was forced to sit out the rest of the session. Renault's Jenson Button was second quickest, setting a time of 1m:34.744. Button was followed by the McLaren's of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen. These three drivers are all Michelin shod so it must have been encouraging to those at Michelin their tyres performance in the wet. Next came the new Jaguar R3B with Eddie Irvine fifth, team-mate Pedro de la Rosa was seventh with Jordan's Fisichella sixth. BAR Honda’s Jacques Villeneuve was eighth, ahead of Jordan’s Takuma Sato, Nick Heidfeld, and Jarno Trulli. Down in twelfth was Juan-Pablo Montoya followed by BAR’s Olivier Panis in thirteenth. Next came Sauber's Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, Ralf Schumacher, Allan McNish, and Alex Yoong. Toyota's Mika Salo did not complete a lap due to suspected technical problems. In a continuation of the financial problems that have hit the Arrows’ team their cars, which had both passed scrutineering, were not able to take to the track. Team Boss Tom Walkinshaw is yet to make a deal with Cosworth over payment for their engines.
	Driver Team (Tyres) Time Gap Laps 01. R Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:33.531 09 02. J Button Renault (M) 1:34.744 1.213 14 03. D Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:35.295 1.764 10 04. K Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:35.407 1.876 13 05. E Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:35.682 2.151 15 06. G Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 1:36.242 2.711 13 07. P de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:36.287 2.756 13 08. J Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:36.603 3.072 14 09. T Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 1:36.641 3.110 14 10. N Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:36.661 3.130 08 11. J Trulli Renault (M) 1:37.204 3.673 13 12. JP Montoya BMW.WilliamsF1 (M) 1:37.651 4.120 05 13. O Panis BAR-Honda (B) 1:37.762 4.231 08 14. F Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:37.774 4.243 07 15. M Webber Minardi-Asiatech (M) 1:37.858 4.327 16 16. R Schumacher BMW.WilliamsF1 (M) 1:38.744 5.213 10 17. A McNish Toyota (M) 1:39.137 5.606 15 18. A Yoong Minardi-Asiatech (M) 1:43.108 9.577 15 19. M Schumacher Ferrari (B) no time 20. Heinz H. Frentzen Arrows-Cosworth (B) no time 21. E Bernoldi Arrows-Cosworth (B) no time 22. M Salo Toyota (M) no time