Friday July 19th, 2002

By Will Gray

The debt-riddled Arrows team failed to turn a wheel in Friday's opening practice session for the French Grand Prix as Rubens Barrichello claimed the fastest time for Ferrari.

The Arrows cars passed scrutineering last night, but continued struggles with shareholders Morgan Grenfell left their cars sitting in the garages for yet another practice session.

An Arrows spokesperson admitted their team "cannot run until (the situation) is sorted out", but with team boss Tom Walkinshaw still working hard to end Morgan Grenfell's block on new Red Bull investment it is likely that they will also miss the second practice session.

Both Arrows drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen, of Germany, and Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi were out of their overalls as Barrichello beat the field around Magny-Cours with a lap of 1:15.056.

The Brazilian was just four hundredths of a second faster than Scot David Coulthard, who beat German rival Michael Schumacher to finish as the McLaren-Mercedes meat in a red Ferrari sandwich.

The Williams-BMW pair of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and German Ralf Schumacher were fourth and fifth fastest respectively, both still within half a second of the fastest time, which was itself some two seconds slower than last year's pole.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren-Mercedes, was sixth fastest with the lead Renault of Briton Jenson Button seventh ahead of impressively placed Ulsterman Eddie Irvine, who worked his newly-modified Jaguar up into the top ten, finishing 1.310 seconds behind the fastest time.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa also gave suggestions that the new Jaguar is an improvement on the old by finishing ninth fastest, with Japan's Takuma Sato, of Jordan, claiming the final top ten spot.

His teammate, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, was one spot behind but went off at the final corner on his last lap, while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve also had a trip across the gravel in his British American Racing Honda and finished 18th fastest.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:15.056  203.896 km/h  13  
 2.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:15.099    +    0.043  14  
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:15.174    +    0.118  18  
 4.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:15.271    +    0.215  19  
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:15.481    +    0.425  20  
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:15.525    +    0.469  14  
 7.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:15.869    +    0.813  14  
 8.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:16.366    +    1.310  15  
 9.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:16.423    +    1.367  18  
10.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:16.493    +    1.437  23  
11.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:16.506    +    1.450  19  
12.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:16.574    +    1.518  25  
13.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:16.763    +    1.707  15  
14.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:16.776    +    1.720  22  
15.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:16.814    +    1.758  18  
16.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:17.205    +    2.149   9  
17.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:17.219    +    2.163  18  
18.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:17.415    +    2.359  16  
19.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:18.203    +    3.147  15  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:20.891    +    5.835  23 

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 10:02:04 GMT

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