Practice sessions are not always fair reflections of a team’s form ahead of a Grand Prix, but few expected Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F-2001 to be as dominant as it proved in Melbourne, Australia on Friday. His team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, was not far off Schumi’s pace – an ominous sign for the rest of the grid…
Practice sessions are not always fair reflections of a team’s form ahead of a Grand Prix, but few expected Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F-2001 to be as dominant as it proved in Melbourne, Australia on Friday. His team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, was not far off Schumi’s pace – an ominous sign for the rest of the grid…
The teams’ preparations for this Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix were apparently disrupted by the changeable weather conditions at the Albert Park circuit. Rain began to fall just over halfway into the second practice session for Sunday’s Australian GP, but Schumacher led the way with the fastest lap in what the other teams expected to be a mediocre, near-obsolete car.
The session proved to be an upset when F1 debutants Toyota stunned all by setting the sixth-fastest time. F1 rookie Felipe Massa impressed many observers by going eighth-fastest in what team boss Peter Sauber described as the Brazilian’s “first real day in Formula One”.
Due to the changeable weather conditions, last year’s pole position time of 1:26,892 was never under threat, but – as in the first session – Schumacher soon upped the ante with a time of 1:27,971 and then a 1:27,216 – a time that would remain unbeaten and that Sir Frank Williams would describe as “fairly unbeatable…”
A determined Barrichello set the second-fastest time and was, in general, the quickest in the first two sectors of the circuit.
"We are quite pleased with today’s performance and we feel more confident than before arriving here. But I am not overconfident, because a lot can change between today and Saturday,” Schumacher said. “I am a little bit surprised about the gap to the other teams, but as usual on Friday you can never be sure about what fuel loads teams are running. Anyway, the Bridgestone tyres were working very well, which contributed to our performance. But I will now study the data more fully to get a more complete picture."
At the start of the first session, Barrichello began on rain tyres. Schumacher first went out on intermediates, both men ending the first hour running dry weather tyres. Both drivers were working on set-up and aerodynamics and Barrichello is just as confident as his team-mate about their chances on Sunday.
"A good day, and I am relaxed about things. We were able to test out the balance of the car in the wet and then in the dry,” the Brazilian said when it was all over. “We are quite confident. I think that the times will be much closer tomorrow, as today we did not get a clear picture of what the other teams can do. We did a very good job and now we can concentrate on tomorrow."
Team boss Jean Todt predicted that tomorrow’s pole position time should be quicker than last year’s. “From what we have seen today, the Bridgestone tyres appear to be competitive and consistent. I am sure this evolution of the F2001 we have brought here to Melbourne can do well in tomorrow’s qualifying, even compared with the new cars being run by the other teams."
Ralf Schumacher set the third-fastest time in his BMW-Williams, but – at about 1,4 seconds off his brother’s pace – will not be delighted with his performance. His team-mate, Juan Pablo Montoya, told his engineers that his “brakes didn’t work very well.”
The team will, however, be pleased to be close to the pace on this opening day of the season after mixed results in pre-season testing and will undoubtedly up theitsir pace considerably on light fuel loads tomorrow.
“We were a bit unlucky with the weather today. At the start of the first session the track was wet and we had some rain later as well,” Ralf Schumacher said. “A positive thing was that I could test both the wet and the intermediate tyres. Additionally I also tried the two types of dry tyre options and we have decided which we’re going to use for tomorrow. Ferrari appears far away but I hope that we will be able to catch up during the weekend.”
Montoya’s best lap was less than five-hundredths off Ralf’s time. “The track was very slippery at the start, so it was quite difficult to adjust the car to it,” Montoya said. “I suffered with oversteer in the first session and understeer in the second, and the intermittent rain did not help as the conditions of the track were quickly changing and weren’t even consistent over the lap. We managed, anyway, to work on the tyres and I think we have collected valuable data. We’ll see tomorrow.”
Sauber Petronas’s Nick Heidfeld suffered a fuel pressure problem, but the German recorded the fifth fastest time in the Ferrari-powered C21. Massa was not overwhelmed in his first official practice session and was a superb eighth-fastest.
"Obviously I’m happy so far. It’s nice to be fifth-quickest on the first day of the new season. I stopped at the end of this morning’s session when a faulty sensor caused a warning light to come on, but the second session was fine apart from some brief rain,” Heidfeld explained. “We didn’t do everything that we wanted to today because of the weather, but the performance of the Sauber Petronas C21 confirms the good feelings I have had for the car all winter and my position is even better than I had hoped for."
For rookie driver Felipe Massa, an eighth-place finish for day one on a new circuit continued to show just how fast the young Brazilian is. Despite being three places behind his teammate, the young Brazilian’s time was under four-tenths of a second slower and he is now aiming to qualify in the top ten.
"I think that’s a pretty good start for me! The car was really nice today and I was able to learn the track very quickly,” he explained. “I was being very careful to get the first corner right, because otherwise it spoils the second corner as well if you make a mistake there. Everything went well, and I’m really happy. My aim is to qualify in the top 10, so this is a good foundation for me."
Mika Salo surprised many by being sixth-fastest in the brand new Toyota entry. The Finn, who sat out last season to test with the Japanese manufacturer, set the fastest time of 299 km/h. His rookie team-mate, Allan McNish, was 16th fastest.
In the pre-season, Toyota claimed that its target for the 2002 season would be simply to qualify in the early races. On this form, Toyota could be in the position to score points in this year’s championship.
However, Toyota chief designer Gustav Brunner on Friday said that sixth place “was a false position at this stage”. He said: "Generally we are very happy with the first session. The team worked very well together and also the car functioned well, but we are not as good as it seems on the timesheets.
"Tomorrow we have to continue with this and qualify as well as we can. All systems are go and I am quite positive," Brunner said
Salo was buoyed by the car’s performance: "When the track was dry, the car seemed to perform well and we had no problems with it. It was quite a motivating day."
Kimi Raikkonen, who made his Grand Prix debut with Sauber Petronas in Australia 12 months ago, was seventh-fastest for McLaren-Mercedes. It was a disappointing practice session for the Woking-based team. David Coulthard, one of the pre-season favourites, could do no better than the 11th-fastest time.
“There is no doubt that the weather made things tricky today and changed our planned program a bit,” Raikkonen said. “We had a few minor problems and like most teams we have a completely new car here so we just need to familiarise ourselves with how it works at this track”.
Coulthard only managed 25 laps after a problem with one of the tyres on his MP4-17 brought his second session to a premature end. However, he wasn’t too concerned by the delay and is now hoping for better weather on Saturday.
“It’s great to be back in action again. We didn’t run in the latter half of the second session as there was a problem with the left rear wheel, so I didn’t get a quick run on new tyres which was a shame,” he explained. “The weather made things a bit difficult so let’s see what happens tomorrow when hopefully the sun will be shining.”
Giancarlo Fisichella, now back with Jordan for the second time in his career, was ninth-fastest despite a problem with his Honda V10 right at the end of the session. Takuma Sato, one of four rookies at the Australian Grand Prix, was also impressive in his EJ12 – on the very ragged edge on each of his 40-laps and impressing with 13th fastest time.
Renault would be relatively pleased to see Jarno Trulli up in tenth position in the R202, but Flavio Briatore was "a little concerned" over Jenson Button, who languished in 15th place.
BAR Honda’s Jacques Villeneuve set the 12th-fastest time in what looked to be a chassis suffering from excessive understeer, while Olivier Panis disappointed with the 18th-fastest time. Pedro de la Rosa was the faster of the two Jaguar drivers, with the Spaniard setting the 14th fastest time and Eddie Irvine three positions back in the second R3 chassis.
Arrows suffered a difficult first day running on full tanks with new signing Heinz-Harald Frentzen leading the way in 19th and Enrique Bernoldi in 21st place. Bernoldi was an early casualty in the session, pulling his Arrows A23 Cosworth to a halt on-track with a gear selection problem. Interestingly, Arrows team boss Tom Walkinshaw also revealed today that his TWR company will supply engineering expertise for a group – yet un-named – that has purchased the assets of the former Prost Grand Prix team.
Mark Webber ended his day in 20th position in his Asiatech-powered Minardi and described his first lap on track today in front of his home crowd as “very special.” Team-mate Alex Yoong did not enjoy such a successful start to the 2002 season with a mechanical problem in session one, and then a spin at turn one in the second session as rain began to fall saw the Malaysian hopeful at the tail of the timesheets.
Friday’s Practice Times:
Pos No Driver Team – Engine Tyres Times Ave/Gaps laps
1. 1 M Schumacher Ferrari B 1m27,276 218.741 Km/h 30
2. 2 Barrichello Ferrari B 1m27,799 + 0,523 35
3. 5 R Schumacher Williams BMW M 1m28,821 + 0,545 33
4. 6 Monoya Williams BMW M 1m28,870 + 1,594 36
5. 7 Heidfeld Sauber Petronas B 1m29,572 + 2,296 30
6. 24 Salo Toyota M 1m29,601 + 2,325 34
7. 4 Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes M 1m29,875 + 2,599 27
8. 8 Massa Sauber Petronas B 1m29,937 + 2,661 35
9. 9 Fisichella Jordan Honda B 1m30,187 + 2,911 36
10. 14 Trulli Renault M 1m30,298 + 3,022 35
11. 3 Coulthard McLaren Mercedes M 1m30,312 + 3,036 25
12. 11 Villeneuve BAR Honda B 1m30,352 + 3,076 38
13. 10 Sato Jordan Honda B 1m30,540 + 3,264 40
14. 17 De la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth M 1m30,566 + 3,290 26
15. 15 Button Renault M 1m30,588 + 3,312 34
16. 25 McNish Toyota M 1m30,602 + 3,326 34
17. 16 Irvine Jaguar Cosworth M 1m30,973 + 3,697 34
18. 12 Panis BAR Honda B 1m31,127 + 3,851 31
19. 20 Frentzen Arrows Cosworth B 1m32,465 + 5,189 26
20. 23 Webber Minardi Asiatech M 1m32,695 + 5,419 25
21. 21 Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth B 1m32,912 + 5,636 20
22. 22 Yoong Minardi Asiatech M 1m44,011 + 16,735 16
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