Saturday Free Practice - San Marino GP

Saturday May 1st, 1999

Coulthard on the pace

"It is not easy to get the car balanced on a track like this, but when you do get it, the times flow easily," said David Coulthard after taking the fastest time of the session for McLaren leaving his team-mate Mika Hakkinen trailing in second place by two tenth's of a second. Coulthard, who likes this circuit, is confident that he can repeat his pole position of last year. Mika Hakkinen tried hard to beat his team-mate's time, the Finn running off the road at one point, but could not match the Scotsman's pace.

Michael playing a guessing game

It's going to be difficult to make the right tyre choice for qualifying as we don't know how the weather will be for the race tomorrow," said Michael Schumacher after taking the third fastest time of the session only a tenth of Hakkinen's fastest lap. Eddie Irvine's car was fitted with the new front wing for this session, the Irishman having a spin during the session as he worked to revise his car's set-up for the new front wing. Despite that he was fourth fastest, three tenth's of a second behind Schumacher.

Barrichello fifth for Stewart

Rubens Barrichello continued to run strongly in the Stewart- Ford, he took fifth place with team-mate Johnny Herbert just behind him in sixth spot. "The car was a lot more consistent this morning. I shall be looking for a place in the top 6 on the grid," predicted Barrichello. Herbert was a lot happier with his car today after working on the set-up overnight.

Ralf Schumacher takes seventh

After setting what was to be seventh fastest time of the morning early in the session, Williams' Ralf Schumacher worked on the race set-up for the rest of the session. Alex Zanardi lost some time in the pits with an hydraulic problem, but was not too worried as he quite happy with his car's performance before that.

In brief...

Changes to the set-up of his Jordan saw HH Frentzen back up to eighth place just ahead of team-mate Hill, the German still struggling to find a good all-round balance for his car. Hill was not as happy as he had been yesterday, Damon saying that the car did not feel as good on low fuel load than it did with heavier tanks.

Both Prost drivers were finding it hard to strike a balance between traction and high speed stability. Pedro Diniz was just ahead of his team-mate Alesi in 13th place, the Frenchman planning to run the same qualifying set-up as Diniz in a bid to improve his times.

The Benetton boys were still struggling to find a good set-up and did not better 14th and 15th fastest times. Mika Salo, sixteenth fastest, headed Jacques Villeneuve who was ack in 17th spot troubled by fuel pressure problems during the session.

Saturday Free Practice, Accumulated Times

Pos Driver         NAT  Team                 Time                  
 1  Coulthard      GBR  Mclaren Mercedes     1'26"509   205.158 Km/H
 2  Hakkinen       FIN  Mclaren Mercedes     1'26"750   + 0'00"241  
 3  M.Schummacher  GER  Ferrari              1'26"834   + 0'00"325  
 4  Irvine         GBR  Ferrari              1'27"193   + 0'00"684  
 5  Barrichello    BRA  Stewart Ford         1'27"429   + 0'00"920  
 6  Herbert        GBR  Stewart Ford         1'27"734   + 0'01"225  
 7  R.Schumacher   GER  Williams Supertec    1'27"986   + 0'01"477  
 8  Frentzen       GER  Jordan Mugen-Hond    1'28"196   + 0'01"687  
 9  Hill           GBR  Jordan Mugen-Hond    1'28"209   + 0'01"700  
10  Zanardi        ITA  Williams Supertec    1'28"364   + 0'01"855  
11  Trulli         ITA  Prost Peugeot        1'28"405   + 0'01"896  
12  Diniz          BRA  Sauber Petronas      1'28"447   + 0'01"938  
13  Alesi          FRA  Sauber Petronas      1'28"468   + 0'01"959  
14  Wurz           AUT  Benetton Playlife    1'28"565   + 0'02"056  
15  Fisichella     ITA  Benetton Playlife    1'28"569   + 0'02"060  
16  Salo           FIN  BAR Supertec         1'28"596   + 0'02"087  
17  Villeneuve     CAN  BAR Supertec         1'28"702   + 0'02"193  
18  Panis          FRA  Prost Peugeot        1'28"956   + 0'02"447  
19  Takagi         JPN  Arrows TWR           1'29"300   + 0'02"791  
20  de la Rosa     SPN  Arrows TWR           1'29"762   + 0'03"253  
21  Gene           SPN  Minardi Ford         1'30"497   + 0'03"988  
22  Badoer         ITA  Minardi Ford         1'31"347   + 0'04"838  

Weather: dry, sunny. 

All timing unofficial


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