Friday September 27th, 2002

By Will Gray

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello began his United States Grand Prix weekend with a bang when he clattered into the wall halfway through Friday's first practice session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As teammate Michael Schumacher put in a faultless performance to top the times, Barrichello lost control on the exit of the final corner and smashed sideways into the wall on the start-finish straight.

Barrichello had use of the spare Ferrari but he failed to get back out on track and the scarlet cars were left at opposite ends of the timesheets, with Schumacher out in front and Barrichello bringing up the rear.

Schumacher set a time of 1:15.188 to lead the second-placed Jordan Honda of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella by 0.305 seconds as the German champion's brother also hit trouble. After an earlier spin, younger Schumacher, Ralf, lost control of his Williams-BMW again with ten minutes of the session remaining and spun into the tyre barriers at turn eight.

The light contact, made with the rear of the car, caused Schumacher to lose his rear wing and left him down in 17th place, with a brave marshal recovering the debris to ensure the practice was not halted for a second time.

At the end of the action-packed practice it was more smiles for Jaguar, whose Ford owners announced prior to the session that they will continue to back their Formula One programme.

The team's two drivers, Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and Ulsterman Eddie Irvine, claimed third and fourth place behind Schumacher and Fisichella, outpacing fifth place Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in the lead Williams-BMW.

Jordan, who will use Ford engines next year, were also on form as Japanese driver Takuma Sato backed up his teammate Fisichella's good performance with a sixth place finish.

German Nick Heidfeld, of Sauber, was seventh with Briton Jenson Button eighth for Renault and the two McLaren-Mercedes' of Finn Kimi Raikkonen and Briton David Coulthard rounding out the top ten.

Sauber new boy Heinz-Harald Frentzen, replacing the penalised Felipe Massa for this weekend and proving to be a tight fit in the Swiss team's small cockpit, was just outside the top ten in 11th place.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:15.188  200.713 km/h   4  
 2.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:15.493    +    0.305  19  
 3.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:15.561    +    0.373  12  
 4.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:15.589    +    0.401  13  
 5.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:15.632    +    0.444  18  
 6.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:15.659    +    0.471  23  
 7.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:15.763    +    0.575  15  
 8.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:15.841    +    0.653  19  
 9.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:15.853    +    0.665  11  
10.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:15.949    +    0.761  12  
11.  Frentzen      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:15.997    +    0.809  18  
12.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:16.200    +    1.012  15  
13.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:16.223    +    1.035  21  
14.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:16.309    +    1.121  18  
15.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:16.427    +    1.239  15  
16.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:16.568    +    1.380  19  
17.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:16.795    +    1.607  13  
18.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:16.873    +    1.685  15  
19.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:17.365    +    2.177  23 

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 17:21:12 GMT

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