Friday April 27th, 2001

New rule changes posed no problems for McLaren's David Coulthard as he topped the times in the first practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday.

The return of traction control failed to knock the lead runners from the top of the pile, and Coulthard finished the session more than four-tenths up on the Ferrari pair of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher's younger brother Ralf, fresh from winning his first Grand Prix at the last race in San Marino, finished in fourth as Mika Hakkinen failed to top him and ended fifth, more than 0.8 seconds down on his team mate.

Local driver Fernando Alonso and Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi were the first drivers out on the circuit as they faced track temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius.

Ulsterman Eddie Irvine set the fastest time in the opening quarter of the session before Scot Coulthard moved to the top of the timesheets with a lap almost six-tenths of a second quicker than Michael Schumacher's pole time last year.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya locked his front left wheel when approaching a corner 27 minutes into the session and spun on the exit in his Williams.

Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen spun off into the gravel two minutes later as drivers got used to their traction control settings at the Barcelona circuit.

Barrichello also drove into the gravel but recovered to move into second place.

Pos. Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (B)  1:20.388  211.823 km/h 
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:20.823    +    0.435 
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:20.992    +    0.604 
 4.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:21.259    +    0.871 
 5.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes   (B)  1:21.265    +    0.877 
 6.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:21.815    +    1.427 
 7.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:22.020    +    1.632 
 8.  Trulli        Jordan Honda       (B)  1:22.194    +    1.806 
 9.  Frentzen      Jordan Honda       (B)  1:22.221    +    1.833 
10.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:22.561    +    2.173 
11.  Raikkonen     Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:23.042    +    2.654 
12.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:23.213    +    2.825 
13.  De La Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:23.395    +    3.007 
14.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:23.704    +    3.316 
15.  Bernoldi      Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:23.784    +    3.396 
16.  Alesi         Prost Acer         (M)  1:23.979    +    3.591 
17.  Burti         Prost Acer         (M)  1:24.361    +    3.973 
18.  Fisichella    Benetton Renault   (M)  1:24.370    +    3.982 
19.  Verstappen    Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:24.873    +    4.485 
20.  Alonso        European Minardi   (M)  1:25.199    +    4.811 
21.  Button        Benetton Renault   (M)  1:25.336    +    4.948 
22.  Marques       European Minardi   (M)  1:25.540    +    5.152 

All timing unofficial

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