Friday March 1st, 2002

The conditions were different and unpredictable, rain and cool breezes followed by warm sunshine, but the opening day of the Australian Grand Prix produced the same old story on Friday with Michael Schumacher topping the times for Ferrari.

The quadruple World Champion edged clear of his nearest rival and teammate Rubens Barrichello as he dominated the first day's practice at the season-opening event at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.

Using the Ferrari team's 'old' 2001 car because of reliability concerns over the new 2002 chassis unveiled at Maranello earlier this year, both Schumacher and Barrichello showed they remain the men to beat. Schumacher clocked a best time of 1:27.276 seconds to outpace his Brazilian partner by half a second.

The third-placed runner, Michael's younger brother Ralf, in a Williams-BMW, was a further second adrift after outpacing his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya in a day of few surprises.

The Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, as expected, performed well again and the German driver used it to secure fifth place ahead of sixth-placed Mika Salo who marked his return and Toyota's maiden session in the sport with an impressive showing.

This left him ahead of fellow-Finn Kimi Raikkonen, a close-season recruit by McLaren from Sauber, who steered his Mercedes-Benz powered car to seventh spot, one place ahead of new boy Felipe Massa of Brazil in the second Sauber.

David Coulthard, who is expected to be a strong challenger this year in his McLaren, was down in 11th place behind the two Italians Giancarlo Fisichella in a Jordan-Honda and Jarno Trulli in the leading Renault. Jenson Button in the second Renault was 15th, a disappointment after an encouraging effort in the morning when he was ninth.

Jacques Villeneuve, in his BAR-Honda, watched from the garage by his manager Craig Pollock, who is the former team principal, was 12th, six places ahead of teammate Olivier Panis, while the Jaguar team of Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa also struggled to end up 17th and 14th respectively.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:27.276  218.741 km/h
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:27.799    +    0.523
 3.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:28.821    +    1.545
 4.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:28.870    +    1.594
 5.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:29.572    +    2.296
 6.  Salo          Toyota             (M)  1:29.601    +    2.325
 7.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  1:29.875    +    2.599
 8.  Massa         Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:29.937    +    2.661
 9.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda       (B)  1:30.187    +    2.911
10.  Trulli        Renault            (M)  1:30.298    +    3.022
11.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  1:30.312    +    3.036
12.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:30.352    +    3.076
13.  Sato          Jordan Honda       (B)  1:30.540    +    3.264
14.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:30.566    +    3.290
15.  Button        Renault            (M)  1:30.588    +    3.312
16.  McNish        Toyota             (M)  1:30.602    +    3.326
17.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:30.973    +    3.697
18.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:31.127    +    3.851
19.  Frentzen      Arrows Cosworth    (B)  1:32.465    +    5.189
20.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech   (M)  1:32.695    +    5.419
21.  Bernoldi      Arrows Cosworth    (B)  1:32.912    +    5.636
22.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech   (M)  1:44.011    +   16.735

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 03:05:03 GMT

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