Saturday July 29th, 2000

Michael Schumacher crashed in front of his home crowd on Saturday as title rival Mika Hakkinen went fastest in the final free practice for Sunday's German Formula One Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old Ferrari driver spun off backwards into the barriers at the Opel Kurve in the 'stadium' section of the Hockenheimring circuit in the final seconds of the session as he attempted to improve on his time.

The championship leader lost control and his car hit the barriers in the impact, losing the rear wing.

Schumacher walked away solemnly from the accident, grim-faced but unhurt, less than an hour after his younger brother Ralf has also spun his Williams off in a similar accident that snapped off his rear wing.

Double world champion Hakkinen of Finland, in his McLaren, had a best lap of one minute and 41.658 seconds, three-tenths of a second ahead of second fastest Schumacher's best time.

Hakkinen's team-mate Briton David Coulthard was third-fastest in the second McLaren ahead of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen was fifth in his Jordan and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella sixth.

Fisichella's car suffered an apparent engine failure, however, at the close of the session when he idled to a halt with smoke billowing from his Benetton.

Frenchman Jean Alesi in a Prost, also spun off early in the session when he lost control of the car under braking while the circuit was still damp following Friday's torrential rain.

Pos  Driver         Team                 Times                 
 1.  Hakkinen       McLaren Mercedes     1:41.658  241.693 km/h
 2.  M.Schumacher   Ferrari              1:41.932   +  0.274   
 3.  Coulthard      McLaren Mercedes     1:41.971   +  0.313   
 4.  Barrichello    Ferrari              1:42.340   +  0.682   
 5.  Frentzen       Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:42.446   +  0.788   
 6.  Fisichella     Benetton Playlife    1:42.613   +  0.955   
 7.  Button         Williams BMW         1:42.617   +  0.959   
 8.  Salo           Sauber Petronas      1:42.877   +  1.219   
 9.  Villeneuve     BAR Honda            1:42.878   +  1.220   
10.  Trulli         Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:42.903   +  1.245   
11.  Verstappen     Arrows Supertec      1:43.175   +  1.517   
12.  de la Rosa     Arrows Supertec      1:43.438   +  1.780   
13.  Zonta          BAR Honda            1:43.534   +  1.876   
14.  Diniz          Sauber Petronas      1:43.554   +  1.896   
15.  Wurz           Benetton Playlife    1:43.623   +  1.965   
16.  Irvine         Jaguar Cosworth      1:44.049   +  2.391   
17.  Heidfeld       Prost Peugeot        1:44.174   +  2.516   
18.  Alesi          Prost Peugeot        1:44.515   +  2.857   
19.  Gene           Minardi Fondmetal    1:44.591   +  2.933   
20.  Mazzacane      Minardi Fondmetal    1:45.000   +  3.342   
21.  Herbert        Jaguar Cosworth      1:45.234   +  3.576   
22.  R.Schumacher   Williams BMW         1:52.141   + 10.483   

All Timing Unofficial

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