 Friday First Free Practice - German GP Friday July 28th, 2000 Schumacher quickest at home Michael Schumacher set the pace in the opening practice session for his home German GP this morning, the local hero setting a best time that was only half a second outside Mika Hakkinen's 1999 pole-wining time despite damp patches and the green track conditions. Rubens Barrichello underlined what looks like being a competitive circuit for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team who are running revised aerodynamics since the last race, both drivers happy with their initial running at this circuit with the new set-up, Schumacher making some changes to find the best set-up compromise between the high speed sections and the slower infield corners. Hakkinen confident Mika Hakkinen and Davis Coulthard were quite confident after their first session with the McLaren-Mercedes here, which saw Hakkinen second quickest and Coulthard fourth. They were running full tanks and working on brake tests, the team due to run a revised braking system before qualifying. "With the car over half the lap on full throttle it is vital to have good brakes," pointed out Ron Dennis. The cars were also running new aerodynamic bits for this high-speed circuit. Improvement for Jordan Both Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli were happy with the revised aerodynamics on the Jordan, which Trulli ran in Silverstone since the last race and found a significant improvement. Frentzen ran just 10 laps this morning and was happy with fifth place despite a heavy fuel load. Trulli was unable to complete a lap after his car suffered an electrical failure on the first lap. Zonta and Villeneuve well up for BAR Ricardo Zonta and Jacques Villeneuve set the sixth and seventh fastest times for BAR in the first session, Villeneuve complaining about a heavy steering on his car which was improved after a long stop to change the system and the front ride height of the car. Zonta was complaining of too much oversteer, but did not make too many changes to the mechanical set-up of the car as he did not want to lose track time because of the approaching rain. In brief... Benetton also ran revised aerodynamics for this race as well as revised front suspension geometry. Fisichella was quite happy with the balance, but complained of an overall lack of grip. Alex Wurz was less happy complaining of a general nervousness of the car. The Benetton engines are also running a small improvement for this race. Both Sauber drivers complained of bad handling with too much oversteer, especially on the bumps. Williams' Ralf Schumacher was again not very happy with his car despite setting 10th fastest time. Jenson Button was 12th quickest, but ended the session walking back to the pits after he spun off and knocked his car's nose off against the barrier when he turned into the pit lane. Johnny Herbert was using a special development engine in his Jaguar-Ford. Herbert got a standard one, but was 11th fastest, Irvine 14th. The team has three development engines for the weekend, which they hope to race. Both Prost drivers were also complaining about handling over the bumps while Mazzacane handling problems with his Minardi turned out to be a broken shock absorber.
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