Friday April 21st, 2000

Frentzen retains fastest time

With the second free practice session run on a track that ranged from wet to almost flooded, Heinz-Harald Frentzen retained his morning dry track time as the fastest of the day with hardly anyone else improving their times.

Tow truck gets stuck

Conditions were so wet during the session that the Land Rover rescue truck, which came to the aid of David Coulthard who parked his McLaren on the side of the track with an hydraulic failure, got bogged down in the mud, which brought out a red flag! It took several other vehicles driving around the track to recover the vehicles.

The heavy rain had also caused such chaos in the car parks surrounding the track that the BRDC organizers have announced that all the public car parks will be closed on Saturday and that anyone who has tickets for Saturday can get a refund. For the moment, the public have been advised to leave more time to come to the race on Sunday, but there is also a possibility that the public will be refunded if they decide not to come due to the appalling muddy conditions of the grass car parks.

Visibility a problem

The standing water caused many of the drivers to spin off during the session, none of them damaging their cars, but the clouds of spray from cars ahead made driving very dangerous. "It was conditions for a safety car," said Jacques Villeneuve. He added that when he came upon the stranded car of David Coulthard for the first time the first thing he saw was a marshal in the middle of the track and no yellow flags.

Ralf Schumacher improves

The only driver to improve on his time in the afternoon was Ralf Schumacher who failed to set a time in the morning . He went out at the start of the session when the track was less wet and what was to be the 15th fastest time of the day, the best of the session. His brother Michael did some 16 laps in the afternoon to get used to the conditions, but failed to improve on his morning time which left him in 21st position. "There was nothing much to be learned with the car, but it was important to do some running to find out where the worst standing water was in case we have similar conditions for the race," said Michael

In brief...

Mika Salo was still complaining of bad oversteer with his car. Nick Heidfeld was second quickest for Prost in the session, he and Alesi having solved their electrical problems, although they both had spins during the session, which saw Alesi get stuck on the track.

Today's Accumulated Times:

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                  
 1.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:27.683
 2.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth      1:28.169   +     0.486
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:28.525   +     0.842
 4.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:28.659   +     0.976
 5.  Trulli        Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:28.705   +     1.022
 6.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda            1:28.845   +     1.162
 7.  Barrichello   Ferrari              1:29.083   +     1.400
 8.  Wurz          Benetton Playlife    1:29.111   +     1.428
 9.  Fisichella    Benetton Playlife    1:29.214   +     1.531
10.  Gene          Minardi Fondmetal    1:29.537   +     1.854
11.  Button        Williams BMW         1:29.775   +     2.092
12.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:30.214   +     2.531
13.  de la Rosa    Arrows Supertec      1:30.279   +     2.596
14.  Verstappen    Arrows Supertec      1:30.313   +     2.630
15.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW         1:30.593   +     2.910
16.  Salo          Sauber Petronas      1:30.643   +     2.960
17.  Alesi         Prost Peugeot        1:30.656   +     2.973
18.  Heidfeld      Prost Peugeot        1:31.006   +     3.323
19.  Mazzacane     Minardi Fondmetal    1:31.250   +     3.567
20.  Zonta         BAR Honda            1:31.322   +     3.639
21.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              1:36.425   +     8.742
22.  Herbert       Jaguar Cosworth      1:39.690   +    12.007

All timing unofficial