Friday June 7th, 2002

By Will Gray

Briton David Coulthard led the field after Friday's opening day of practice for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix as World Champion Michael Schumacher struggled to perform in the hot conditions at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Coulthard, boosted by more power from the Mercedes engine in his McLaren this weekend, beat last year's pole position time on his way to the fastest time of the day, and finished one tenth of a second faster than Williams-BMW rival Juan Pablo Montoya.

World Champion Michael Schumacher managed the third fastest time in his Bridgestone-shod Ferrari as the Michelin runners claimed the edge, and even a late run could serve only to move him ahead of the second McLaren-Mercedes of Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who finished fourth.

German Ralf Schumacher, in the second Williams-BMW, was fifth fastest, six tenths of a second slower than leader Coulthard, while Mika Salo claimed sixth fastest time for Toyota.

Olivier Panis, who broke his leg in a heavy accident at the Montreal circuit in 1997, was seventh for the British American Racing Honda team as his Canadian teammate Jacques Villeneuve finished ninth, behind the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, with German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, of Arrows, completing the top ten.

Italian Jarno Trulli had a troubled start to his weekend when he stopped out on the track with just seven minutes of the second hour-long practice completed and was forced to sit out the rest of the session and ended in 21st place.

Schumacher's Ferrari had slowly dropped down the order after topping the times in the first session and Williams driver Montoya moved into the ascendancy by setting a lap time of 1:15.702. But with three minutes of the session to go, Coulthard set a time of 1:15.407 to claim the top spot.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:15.407  208.198 km/h  39  
 2.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:15.543    +    0.136  36  
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:15.788    +    0.381  40  
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:15.946    +    0.539  42  
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:16.018    +    0.611  45  
 6.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:16.259    +    0.852  38  
 7.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:16.333    +    0.926  48  
 8.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:16.440    +    1.033  37  
 9.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:16.448    +    1.041  48  
10.  Frentzen      Arrows Cosworth   (B)  1:16.793    +    1.386  40  
11.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:16.801    +    1.394  46  
12.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:16.989    +    1.582  36  
13.  Bernoldi      Arrows Cosworth   (B)  1:17.018    +    1.611  27  
14.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:17.250    +    1.843  46  
15.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:17.473    +    2.066  32  
16.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:17.489    +    2.082  52  
17.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:17.765    +    2.358  42  
18.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:18.034    +    2.627  36  
19.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:18.143    +    2.736  34  
20.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:18.311    +    2.904  34  
21.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:18.465    +    3.058  19  
22.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:19.050    +    3.643  55

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 18:02:31 GMT

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