Sunday July 21st, 2002
By Will Gray
The Ferrari pair of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello topped the times in Sunday morning's warm-up for the French Grand Prix, with the champion-elect claiming the top spot ahead of his Brazilian teammate.
Schumacher set a time of 1:14.147 seconds to lead the field by more than seven tenths of a second as pole man Juan Pablo Montoya, of Williams-BMW, struggled to get out of the garage.
Montoya's race preparations seemed to be hampered by problems in the Williams pit. He set his first flying lap with five minutes of the session to go and only managed eight laps, while Schumacher completed 18.
Italian Jarno Trulli, of Renault, finished third fastest but was more than a second behind the lead Ferrari, while the Saubers of Brazilian youngster Felipe Massa and German Nick Heidfeld were fourth and fifth.
The clear skies over the Magny-Cours circuit sent temperatures up to 20 degrees by the end of the session, but four of the top five drivers were running on Bridgestone tyres even though warm weather is believed to favour Michelins.
Trulli was the only Michelin runner in the top five, but after that it was all French rubber, with his teammate Jenson Button in sixth place, Finn Kimi Raikkonen seventh for McLaren-Mercedes, Eddie Irvine in the Jaguar in eighth and David Coulthard, in the second McLaren-Mercedes, ninth.
Frenchman Olivier Panis finished off the top ten in his British American Racing Honda, but the Williams cars struggled, as is usual in the warm-up session, as Ralf Schumacher spun and finished 12th and Montoya ended up 14th.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:14.174 206.320 km/h 18
2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:14.888 + 0.714 12
3. Trulli Renault (M) 1:15.455 + 1.281 12
4. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:15.519 + 1.345 14
5. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:15.534 + 1.360 15
6. Button Renault (M) 1:15.673 + 1.499 15
7. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:15.714 + 1.540 13
8. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:15.804 + 1.630 12
9. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:15.817 + 1.643 15
10. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:16.058 + 1.884 13
11. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:16.068 + 1.894 12
12. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:16.184 + 2.010 16
13. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:16.612 + 2.438 15
14. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:16.755 + 2.581 8
15. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:16.821 + 2.647 14
16. Salo Toyota (M) 1:16.889 + 2.715 16
17. McNish Toyota (M) 1:17.056 + 2.882 15
18. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:17.873 + 3.699 15
19. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:19.045 + 4.871 13
All Timing Unofficial
Published at 08:06:47 GMT