Thursday June 1st, 2000

World championship leader Michael Schumacher topped the times at the end of Thursday morning's first hour of free practice for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old German, driving a Ferrari, clocked a best time of one minute and 23.039 seconds to outpace his nearest rival, defending world champion Finn Mika Hakkinen, in a McLaren, by three-tenths of a second.

On a dry, warm and sunny day in the Mediterranean principality, the most noteworthy early performance came from 20-year-old Briton Jenson Button in a Williams.

Making his first appearance at the winding, technical and demanding street circuit, Button wound up eighth-fastest and could have done even better if he had not been slowed on his best lap by Frenchman Jean Alesi, in a Prost, suffering a gearbox problem.

Alesi, one of the most experienced men in the sport, pulled up in the swimming pool complex without suffering anything like the spectacular damage that Gaston Mazzacane did in his Minardi when he spun into the barriers and lost his front right wheel.

Briton David Coulthard was third fastest in the second McLaren ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in a Benetton.

Pos  Driver         Team                 Times               
 1.  M.Schumacher   Ferrari              1:23.039  146.100 km/h
 2.  Hakkinen       McLaren Mercedes     1:23.397   +  0.358
 3.  Coulthard      McLaren Mercedes     1:23.457   +  0.418
 4.  Fisichella     Benetton Playlife    1:23.783   +  0.744
 5.  Frentzen       Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:24.341   +  1.302
 6.  Alesi          Prost Peugeot        1:24.607   +  1.568
 7.  Irvine         Jaguar Cosworth      1:24.649   +  1.610
 8.  Button         Williams BMW         1:24.768   +  1.729
 9.  Barrichello    Ferrari              1:25.095   +  2.056
10.  Salo           Sauber Petronas      1:25.183   +  2.144
11.  Wurz           Benetton Playlife    1:25.464   +  2.425
12.  Diniz          Sauber Petronas      1:26.181   +  3.142
13.  Zonta          BAR Honda            1:26.627   +  3.588
14.  Villeneuve     BAR Honda            1:26.708   +  3.669
15.  de la Rosa     Arrows Supertec      1:26.779   +  3.740
16.  Herbert        Jaguar Cosworth      1:26.870   +  3.831
17.  Mazzacane      Minardi Fondmetal    1:27.031   +  3.992
18.  Heidfeld       Prost Peugeot        1:27.074   +  4.035
19.  Gene           Minardi Fondmetal    1:27.431   +  4.392
20.  Verstappen     Arrows Supertec      1:27.475   +  4.436
21.  Trulli         Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:27.493   +  4.454
22.  R.Schumacher   Williams BMW         1:40.863   + 17.824


All Timing Unofficial