Friday July 27th, 2001

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello topped the times ahead of Jaguar's Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa in the first practice session for the German Grand Prix.

Brazilian Barrichello, who won the German Grand Prix last year, was faster than David Coulthard, who finished third, and teammate Michael Schumacher, who was fourth. The session had started with Jordan's new race driver Ricardo Zonta leading a host of cars out as most of the field completed the first two sectors before coming in again.

Jos Verstappen was the first casualty of the session as his Arrows appeared to suffer a mechanical fault before he had set a competitive time. The Dutch driver was forced to pull over onto the grass at the exit of the Sachs section on his first flying lap.

De la Rosa set the early pace, but in posting his first quick time he went through the Senna chicane very hard and a small piece of his R2's chassis was ripped off as it hit the kerb.

Benetton driver Jenson Button once again appeared to struggle with the handling of his car and after his first flying lap the Briton spun at the exit of the Senna chicane. He was able to continue but came into the pits immediately so mechanics could make adjustments to the B201.

Button's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was the last driver to set a time, barring the helpless Verstappen, but he came out at the mid-point of the session and immediately posted the 15th best time before later improving on that. In the latter stages of the session De la Rosa returned to the top of the times with a stunning lap, but Barrichello responded immediately to put his Ferrari back on top.

Coulthard also pushed hard to better his time, but he went over the limit and straight on at the Jim Clark chicane to ruin his chance while Schumacher went straight on at the Senna chicane to ruin his late lap.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:41.953  240.993 km/h
 2.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:42.302    +    0.349
 3.  Coulthard     Mclaren Mercedes   (B)  1:42.621    +    0.668
 4.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:42.826    +    0.873
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:42.987    +    1.034
 6.  Hakkinen      Mclaren Mercedes   (B)  1:42.994    +    1.041
 7.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:43.212    +    1.259
 8.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:43.275    +    1.322
 9.  Fisichella    Benetton Renault   (M)  1:43.894    +    1.941
10.  Trulli        Jordan Honda       (B)  1:43.970    +    2.017
11.  Zonta         Jordan Honda       (B)  1:44.333    +    2.380
12.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:44.351    +    2.398
13.  Raikkonen     Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:44.372    +    2.419
14.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:44.532    +    2.579
15.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:44.616    +    2.663
16.  Alesi         Prost Acer         (M)  1:45.151    +    3.198
17.  Bernoldi      Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:45.469    +    3.516
18.  Burti         Prost Acer         (M)  1:45.767    +    3.814
19.  Button        Benetton Renault   (M)  1:45.798    +    3.845
20.  Alonso        Minardi European   (M)  1:46.627    +    4.674
21.  Marques       Minardi European   (M)  1:47.292    +    5.339
22.  Verstappen    Arrows Asiatech    (B)  no time

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 10:03:38 GMT

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