Friday July 27th, 2001

Eddie Irvine showed Jaguar's potential at this weekend's German Grand Prix as he topped the times ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in Friday's practice.

Following Pedro de la Rosa's second position in the first session, Irvine's time of 1:41.424 showed that Jaguar could be the team to watch at Hockenheim. Irvine's time shocked the field and it was not beaten for the remainder of the session as Ferrari, McLaren and Williams could not knock the Ulsterman off top spot.

Ralf Schumacher's second session started in the worst possible fashion as his car appeared to suffer a fault with its steering at the Sudkurve, just five minutes into the second practice. Schumacher's car suddenly veered off to the left at the exit of the Sudkurve and travelled through the gravel before coming to a rest next to a tyre wall. The German driver's session was effectively over as he only managed to get back out with 15 minutes remaining and ended up 10th in the times.

Barrichello's second session also got off to a bad start as his car stalled at the end of the pitlane and four Ferrari mechanics raced the length of the pits to push the car back to their garage. Out on the track the Ostkurve chicane was proving a challenge for the drivers as Jordan's Ricardo Zonta and Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella both went straight on at the bend.

Irvine's lightning-quick time forced the big-guns out and Mika Hakkinen was the biggest mover as he set a quick lap in his McLaren to jump from eighth to third in the times.

Hakkinen was behind second-placed Juan Pablo Montoya, who also set a faster lap in his Williams to close the gap on Irvine. Michael Schumacher also came out to try and topple his former Ferrari teammate but he made a mess of the Jim Clark and Senna chicanes to ruin his lap and he came straight back in.

Barrichello rejoined the action but he could not improve on fourth place in the times, after he had been overtaken by Irvine, Montoya and Hakkinen, and his session was prematurely ended when his car suffered a mechanical fault and he was forced to coast in with 10 minutes to go.

In the latter stages, both Minardis also had a trip across the gravel at the Ostkurve chicane as Tarso Marques spun and his teammate Fernando Alonso was forced to take avoiding action close behind. Both drivers were able to continue but were left near the bottom of the times as Irvine took the session by storm.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:41.424  242.250 km/h
 2.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:41.487    +    0.063
 3.  Hakkinen      Mclaren Mercedes   (B)  1:41.949    +    0.525
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:41.953    +    0.529
 5.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:42.255    +    0.831
 6.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:42.302    +    0.878
 7.  Coulthard     Mclaren Mercedes   (B)  1:42.304    +    0.880
 8.  Alesi         Prost Acer         (M)  1:42.828    +    1.404
 9.  Trulli        Jordan Honda       (B)  1:42.941    +    1.517
10.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:42.987    +    1.563
11.  Fisichella    Benetton Renault   (M)  1:43.014    +    1.590
12.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:43.211    +    1.787
13.  Zonta         Jordan Honda       (B)  1:43.461    +    2.037
14.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:43.487    +    2.063
15.  Button        Benetton Renault   (M)  1:43.496    +    2.072
16.  Raikkonen     Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:43.528    +    2.104
17.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:43.815    +    2.391
18.  Verstappen    Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:44.143    +    2.719
19.  Burti         Prost Acer         (M)  1:44.162    +    2.738
20.  Bernoldi      Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:44.549    +    3.125
21.  Alonso        Minardi European   (M)  1:44.730    +    3.306
22.  Marques       Minardi European   (M)  1:45.005    +    3.581

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 12:02:33 GMT

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