Thursday May 23rd, 2002

By Will Gray

Monaco master Michael Schumacher put in an impressive performance around the damp Monaco streets on Thursday morning to finish three tenths of a second ahead of his closest rival, Briton David Coulthard, in preparation for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

The controversy-hit Ferrari driver, who is chasing a record-equalling sixth victory here, kept control in the blustery conditions to set a lap of 1:21.094 during an incident-filled session which saw both Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, of Jaguar, and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren-Mercedes, hit the barriers.

Scot Coulthard, who secured pole position here last year with a lap of 1:17.430, was second for McLaren, half a second ahead of third-placed Trulli, who remains confident of a good performance on a track that is expected to suit his Renault car.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello placed the second Ferrari in fourth, but was eight tenths of a second off the pace of his German World Champion teammate Schumacher, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen claimed fifth for the Arrows team, who continue to surprise with their impressive pace.

De la Rosa had become the first man to hit the barriers, when he went off at the exit of the famous swimming pool complex after 17 minutes of the opening session. The heavy impact damaged both the nose and front right suspension of his Jaguar and it had to be craned off the track.

Finn Raikkonen was next to fall foul of the intimidating barriers when he clipped the inside tyre barrier on the entry to La Rascasse, and spun backwards into the barriers, damaging both ends of his McLaren.

British American Racing had a good session, with on-form Canadian Jacques Villeneuve claiming sixth fastest time, and his French teammate Olivier Panis finishing in seventh.

Briton Jenson Button claimed eighth place in the second Renault, with Raikkonen ninth despite his crash, and German Ralf Schumacher claiming the final top ten spot for Williams-BMW.

Ulsterman Eddie Irvine, who finished on the podium here last year, was 11th fastest for Jaguar, while the second Williams-BMW of Juan Pablo Montoya was down in 16th place, 3.4 seconds off the pace after an early scare which saw the Colombian go straight on at Mirabeau.

Japan's Takuma Sato, who crashed an historic Lotus in the Historic Monaco race last weekend, took a cautious approach and finished 17th, while his Jordan teammate Giancarlo Fisichella finished bottom after only three laps.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:21.094  149.604 km/h  13  
 2.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:21.388    +    0.294  16  
 3.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:21.907    +    0.813  21  
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:21.937    +    0.843  14  
 5.  Frentzen      Arrows Cosworth   (B)  1:22.248    +    1.154  21  
 6.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:22.553    +    1.459  29  
 7.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:22.711    +    1.617  30  
 8.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:22.864    +    1.770  15  
 9.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:22.904    +    1.810   6  
10.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:22.927    +    1.833  22  
11.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:23.330    +    2.236  16  
12.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:23.395    +    2.301  23  
13.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:23.738    +    2.644  20  
14.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:23.996    +    2.902  15  
15.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:24.110    +    3.016  20  
16.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:24.532    +    3.438  17  
17.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:25.032    +    3.938  18  
18.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:25.428    +    4.334  14  
19.  Bernoldi      Arrows Cosworth   (B)  1:25.496    +    4.402  18  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:26.518    +    5.424  18  
21.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:27.555    +    6.461   6  
22.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:40.346    +   19.252   3

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 10:02:19 GMT

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