Friday April 4th, 2003

By Gary Emmerson

Italian Jarno Trulli set the pace in the Friday testing session at Interlagos, as Briton Justin Wilson returned to the cockpit of his Minardi ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Wilson, who was taken to hospital after suffering temporary paralysis of his arms in the Malaysian Grand Prix, successfully completed the two-hour session but ended bottom of the nine drivers in action.

Renault driver Trulli went quickest in a rain-affected session with a lap time of 1:14.262, two-tenths quicker than the Jaguar of Antonio Pizzonia. Brazilian Pizzonia, competing in his home Grand Prix for the first time, had been forced to take to the track in the spare car with 45 minutes remaining after his Jaguar had stopped on track.

Australian Mark Webber was marginally slower than teammate Pizzonia in a positive session for Jaguar, with Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who spun off into the gravel when the rain arrived, fourth in the times. Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella went fifth quickest ahead of Allan McNish, Renault's test driver, and Minardi's Jos Verstappen.

Ralph Firman, who abandoned his car in the pitlane after losing drive with 36 minutes remaining, was eighth fastest - more than two seconds off the pace. The team, however, were encouraged after completing almost their whole test programme.

"We got through most of what we were looking to do this morning, but it began to rain near the end of the session and that interrupted our tyre evaluation," said Jordan's director of race and test engineering Gary Anderson.

"It's not looking too bad and we've been able to get some running both in the dry and the wet, we'll have to wait and see whether that is an advantage."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine      Tyres  Time        Gap       Laps
 1.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:14.262  208.887 km/h  41
 2.  Pizzonia      Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:14.464    +    0.202  34
 3.  Webber        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:14.492    +    0.230  35
 4.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:14.680    +    0.418  39
 5.  Fisichella    Jordan Ford       (B)  1:15.092    +    0.830  23
 6.  McNish        Renault           (M)  1:16.087    +    1.825  16
 7.  Verstappen    Minardi Cosworth  (B)  1:16.322    +    2.060  18
 8.  Firman        Jordan Ford       (B)  1:16.559    +    2.297  27
 9.  Wilson        Minardi Cosworth  (B)  1:16.615    +    2.353  24

All Timing Unofficial