Friday March 24th, 2000

When Jos Verstappen rejoined Arrows during the Formula One off-season, many cynics in the paddock and pit lane grinned at the prospect of seeing him flogging his way around at the back of the field again.

Arrows, at the time, were not seen as capable of anything more than avoiding the final places of the grid after several disappointing seasons.

But on Friday, Dutchman Verstappen and his Spanish team mate Pedro de la Rosa showed that the British team, who have never won a race, are competitive again and capable of scoring points.

De la Rosa clocked the fifth-best time in opening practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix and Verstappen the seventh.

"I'm very pleased today," said the Dutchman. "The car has good balance, we did some good work with the downforce and we were on high fuel.

"We've changed the brakes since the last race and I feel more comfortable with them. The lap time that I did was on hard tyres so I think we can improve in a lot of areas.

"Pedro was very quick too but he was playing with different fuel loads. As for the track, I find that, for me, it's still very bumpy but I don't mind as long as we are making such good progress."

Since rejoining Arrows, Verstappen has seen them attract more than 100 million dollars worth of new sponsorship and transform from stragglers to strong midfield runners.

"The team feels it is going in the right direction and I believe that Tom (Walkinshaw) knows just what he is doing," he said. "It is a great sensation now."