Friday August 30th, 2002

By Will Gray

Finn Kimi Raikkonen ended Ferrari's run at the top of the timesheets on Friday when he finished fastest on the opening day of practice for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

The McLaren-Mercedes driver, who almost won his first Grand Prix in France three races ago, set a lap of 1:47.196 to out-pace the Ferraris as the early morning fog made way for bright sunshine.

Raikkonen finished 0.160 seconds clear of his teammate Scot David Coulthard as the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello dropped down to third and fourth respectively. German Schumacher was just 0.207 seconds off the lead McLaren-Mercedes, but his Brazilian teammate finished 1.125 seconds slower and ended his session beached in a gravel trap after spinning within ten minutes of the end.

German Ralf Schumacher finished fifth fastest for Williams-BMW, with Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya finishing just behind sixth-placed Briton Jenson Button in the leading Renault and seventh placed Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa of Jaguar.

Eddie Irvine was ninth in the second Jaguar, with Finn Mika Salo, who announced on Friday that he will retire at the end of the season, finished in the top ten for Toyota.

In a session with little incident, Australian Mark Webber was forced to walk back after his Minardi ground to a halt, while de la Rosa was faced with the same predicament when his Jaguar stopped with 15 minutes to go.

But it was the Jordan Honda of Japan's Takuma Sato which provided the most spectacular session termination when the Japanese-built engine blew up in a plume of smoke after turn eight.

Meanwhile, the Arrows cars were still prevented from getting out on track as the take-over deal trundled on and forced their only driver, Enrique Bernoldi from making any running on the opening day.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:47.196  234.009 km/h  20  
 2.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:47.356    +    0.160  29  
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:47.403    +    0.207  27  
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:48.321    +    1.125  24  
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:48.435    +    1.239  31  
 6.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:48.778    +    1.582  27  
 7.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:48.902    +    1.706  18  
 8.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:48.969    +    1.773  19  
 9.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:49.222    +    2.026  16  
10.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:49.260    +    2.064  26  
11.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:49.560    +    2.364  28  
12.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:49.603    +    2.407  29  
13.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:49.897    +    2.701  23  
14.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:50.144    +    2.948  23  
15.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:50.357    +    3.161  24  
16.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:50.392    +    3.196  20  
17.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:51.068    +    3.872  26  
18.  Davidson      Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:51.270    +    4.074  32  
19.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:51.355    +    4.159  25  
20.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:52.343    +    5.147  13  

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 12:03:26 GMT

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