Alonso improves as Trulli strugles

By role
April 19 2003

Saturday Qualifying session saw today the resurge of Ferrari as well as of Ralf Schumacher. An intense session meant that 8 drivers qualified within the same second. The last of those 8 drivers was Fernando Alonso, who was able to find the pace to put his car on the 4th row.

His teammate, Jarno Trulli, strugled severely and could only set the 16th best time.

It could have been a Ferrari 1-2 if not for a slight mistake of Barrichello on the last sector. This allowed a motivated Ralf Schumacher to grab P2 and to edge his teammate by more than 0.4 seconds.

Webber continued to impress as he was able to set the 5th best time behind Montoyaand in front of Raikkonen who set the best time of the two McLarens. Villeneuve was the first of the BAR on 7th edging his teammate by more than 0.2 seconds.

Big differences between some of the teammates today as Raikkonen outqualified Coulthard by more than 0.6 seconds, Webber to Pizzonia by 1.2 seconds, Alonso to Trulli by 1 second and Fisichella to Firman by more than 2 seconds.

Quite surprising the time of Fisichella that could only set the 17th best time.