Rain washes out track time

The team's hopes of continuing to work on chassis set-ups for this afternoon's qualifying were washed out by heavy rain throughout most of the morning's free practice session. However, all the drivers went out onto the track at one stage or another in order to check their wet weather tyres and chassis set-up in case the track continues to remain wet for the qualifying session.

Frentzen quickest for Williams

Heinz-Harald Frentzen headed the time sheets throughout the session after setting the quickest lap of the morning in the opening minutes of practice when the rain was less heavy. Jacques Villeneuve was sixth fastest, both Williams drivers very happy with their car's performance in the wet, although Villeneuve ran very little in the second half of the session when the team had to change a brake master cylinder after he complained of a long pedal.

Benetton better in the wet

The Benetton team opted for a half wet set-up, changing only the wing settings on their cars for more grip. Fisichella set the third fastest time apparently on hard tyres. Wurz however was running soft tyres, but was unable to judge if they were better at the end of the session because of the problems of traffic.

McLaren hoping for the sun

The McLaren team are hoping for dry conditions for the rest of the weekend, their Bridgestone intermediate tyres not working as well as the Goodyear's while in the heavier rain David Coulthard found it hard going. "In traffic it is impossible to drive because of the heavy spray and even the puddles that are lying on the track are making it very difficult," said David. Mika Hakkinen experienced similar problems and was just behind Coulthard with the fifth fastest time.

Ferrari take it easy

Eddie Irvine was again quickest for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team , the Irishman running only nine laps towards the end of the session which saw him cut a chicane when his car slid on under braking. 'I just ran a few laps to check out where the worst of the water was. We have run enough laps in the wet to know what the set-up should be and it wasn't worth taking a lot of risks," said Eddie, even though the team have an extra spare car here as well as a fifth monocoque. Michael Schumacher also sat out most of the first half of practice running a total of just 4 laps for the tenth fastest time.

In brief...

The Tyrrell team had to block off much of the radiators in their cars because the engine were running too cool. Although Jean Alesi ran no timed laps yesterday because of electrical problems with his Sauber he only ran nine laps this morning saying that it was too dangerous to risk more because of the zero visibility conditions around traffic.