Saturday March 25th, 2000

Another Ferrari-McLaren shoot out?

By the end of the final free practice session before this afternoon's qualifying practice it looks like being another McLaren-Ferrari duel for the front row of the grid as the two McLarens and Ferraris shared the four fastest times. In a practice qualifying lap right at the end of the session, Mika Hakkinen lowered his 1999 pole time by 2,5 seconds to take the fastest lap of the morning, three tenths quicker than his closest rival. David Coulthard was third fastest, both McLaren drivers enjoying a trouble free session as they fine tuned their cars for qualifying and race conditions.

Barrichello chases the pole

To the delight of his home crowd, Rubens Barrichello took the fastest Ferrari lap of the morning aided by a fresh set of tyres, the Brazilian surviving two spins during the session. He also tried a change of rear wing at the break. Michael Schumacher set the fourth fastest time of the period behind Coulthard's McLaren, but only ran 13 laps after he found his engine down on power at the start of the session. A new one was fitted in 1h 10 minutes and he was back on the track for a final three laps. He did not get the time to fine tune his car as he had hoped to do. The top four cars separated by less than four tenth's of a second.

Trulli best of the rest

Despite a minor trip across the gravel trap , Jarno Trulli was delighted with the performance of his Jordan this morning setting the fifth fastest time of the session . Frentzen also had a minor trip through a gravel trap, but did not better tenth fastest time when he found traffic on his quick run with fresh tyres at the end of the session.

Fisichella well up for Benetton

Giancarlo Fisichella continued to show impressive form with his Benetton taking the sixth quickest time. However, it was another difficult day for Wurz who was back in 12th place after losing time with a gearbox oil filter problems and then spinning off into a gravel trap.

Villeneuve looking for another good place

Jacques Villeneuve was looking for another good showing in qualifying after taking seventh best time. He had a minor trip across a gravel trap , but was very pleased overall with his car's handling and reliability. Zonta had more problems however. He lost time changing a gearbox potentiometer and then wet off into a gravel trap.

In brief...

Ralf Schumacher was happier with his Williams after removing downforce and improving to ninth spot. Button stopped early on when the engine blew, the second in two days.

Both Minardi drivers went off, Mazzacane early on which saw him run only 5 laps after an oil leak prevented him running the second part of the session. Gene was going well , but damaged the front suspension after a bumpy ride across the kerbs and infield. He ended up 17th. Alesi was a disappointed 16th for Prost after losing time with no steering wheel display and hydraulic problems. Heidfeld (19th) was on a quick lap when his engine blew up. Mika Salo had a lucky escape when his Sauber's rear wing failed on the pt straight. He spun off into the wall under braking, his car badly damaged, but he was OK. Diniz was also out early with an engine failure on his Sauber.

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                  
 1.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:14.159
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari              1:14.442   +  0:00.283
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:14.502   +  0:00.343
 4.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              1:14.546   +  0:00.387
 5.  Trulli        Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:14.604   +  0:00.445
 6.  Fisichella    Benetton Playlife    1:15.156   +  0:00.997
 7.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda            1:15.404   +  0:01.245
 8.  Verstappen    Arrows Supertec      1:15.509   +  0:01.350
 9.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW         1:15.594   +  0:01.435
10.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:15.724   +  0:01.565
11.  de la Rosa    Arrows Supertec      1:15.831   +  0:01.672
12.  Wurz          Benetton Playlife    1:15.947   +  0:01.788
13.  Zonta         BAR Honda            1:16.110   +  0:01.951
14.  Herbert       Jaguar Cosworth      1:16.212   +  0:02.053
15.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth      1:16.284   +  0:02.125
16.  Alesi         Prost Peugeot        1:16.457   +  0:02.298
17.  Gene          Minardi Fondmetal    1:16.477   +  0:02.318
18.  Button        Williams BMW         1:16.709   +  0:02.550
19.  Heidfeld      Prost Peugeot        1:16.863   +  0:02.704
20.  Salo          Sauber Petronas      1:17.079   +  0:02.920
21.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:17.949   +  0:03.790
22.  Mazzacane     Minardi Fondmetal    1:27.776   +  0:13.617

All timing unofficial