Trulli surprise fastest for Prost

The long fast straights of the Hockenheimring certainly seem to be suited to the Prost-Peugeot's this year, Jarno Trulli surprising everyone when he took the fastest time of the day just before the end of the final free practice session. "I fitted a new set of tyres and it transformed the car. I had good grip and balance, it was great," said Trulli. Olivier Panis took the sixth fastest time of the session, setting his time earlier with a fresh set of tyres. It was the best performance of the Prost team by a long way since the start of the season.

Irvine retains second place

Eddie Irvine continued the test programme that was cut short by his spin this morning. He improved his morning time by a couple of tenth's of a second to retain second place overall, but was a distant half a second off the pace of the leading Prost as he did not fit fresh tyres . "The car is a bit unstable at the back which is sliding about a bit too much," said Irvine. "Perhaps we need to add a little bit more downforce at the rear," he suggested. Mika Salo worked hard on the set-up throughout the session and was happy with the progress he made even tough he did not set a quicker lap than this morning which saw him slip back to seventh overall.

Fisichella well up for Benetton

Giancarlo Fisichella ran a fresh set of tyres and improved his third place position by over half a second from this morning. "The car has a good balance and the new aerodynamics seem to work well, but once the new tyres have a few laps on them they lose a lot of performance," he pointed out. Wurz was still unhappy with his car, the team suspecting an asymmetric suspension loading.

McLaren struggling

Although neither McLaren driver complained of any specific problems today, David Coulthard was unable to better fourth fastest by the end of the session, while Hakkinen was further back in tenth spot. Coulthard had a trip through the gravel trap coming into the stadium when he braked too late. "You have to readjust your brain to the braking on this low downforce circuit," said Coulthard. Hakkinen also had a problem under braking for the Ostkurve and spun across the chicane to stop backwards on the track, but was able to get going again. Neither driver fitted fresh tyres which would probably have improved their positions considerably.

In brief....

It was another difficult session for the BAR team. Jacques Villeneuve pulled up early right in front of his pit when his car suffered a mechanical problem. Team-mate Zonta had another long walk back to the pits when he pulled up with oil pouring out from under his car having changed an engine this morning. Luca Badoer stopped on the straight with an engine failure for his Minardi-Ford. Pedro de la Rosa brought his Arrows to a stop at the end of the pit straight after laying a smoke screen along the start line from a blown engine.

New tyres saw Marc Gene take an impressive 11th fastest for Minardi, however Badoer stopped early with a broken engine.

It was a bad session for Sauber. Alesi did not run while the team checked out a "quality problem" with his car's braking system. Pedro Diniz only did the last 10 minutes of the session, his car having modified the rear suspension following his problem in the morning. Ralf Schumacher slipped to 13th place losing time with a gearbox problem.

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                   
 1.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot        1:45.677   232.433 kmph
 2.  Irvine        Ferrari              1:46.225   + 0.548     
 3.  Fisichella    Benetton Playlife    1:46.243   + 0.566     
 4.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:46.411   + 0.734     
 5.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford         1:46.418   + 0.741     
 6.  Panis         Prost Peugeot        1:46.516   + 0.839     
 7.  Salo          Ferrari              1:46.542   + 0.865     
 8.  Hill          Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:46.851   + 1.174     
 9.  Wurz          Benetton Playlife    1:46.859   + 1.182     
10.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:46.866   + 1.189     
11.  Gene          Minardi Ford         1:46.913   + 1.236     
12.  Zanardi       Williams Supertec    1:47.043   + 1.366     
13.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec    1:47.334   + 1.657     
14.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:47.513   + 1.836     
15.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec         1:47.513   + 1.836     
16.  Alesi         Sauber Petronas      1:47.551   + 1.874     
17.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:47.802   + 2.125     
18.  Herbert       Stewart Ford         1:47.985   + 2.308     
19.  Badoer        Minardi Ford         1:48.953   + 3.276     
20.  Zonta         BAR Supertec         1:48.978   + 3.301     
21.  Takagi        Arrows TWR           1:49.059   + 3.382     
22.  de la Rosa    Arrows TWR           1:49.207   + 3.530     

All timing unofficial