Friday October 11th, 2002

By Timothy Collings

Jacques Villeneuve lost control of his BAR-Honda and crashed 27 minutes into the opening session of Friday's opening free practice session for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, a collision that caused the action to be red-flagged and halted.

The Canadian veered left and failed to stop his car sliding into a wall at the Spoon Curve where bodywork parts flew in all directions. The rear wing and the entire nose section parted company with the main body of the vehicle, but all four wheels remained tethered to the chassis although they were flying around in seeming limbo.

There was no immediate reason given for the accident or for teammate Olivier Panis pulling up soon afterwards a little further around the circuit. Five-times World Champion Michael Schumacher, in his Ferrari, was first on the scene and had to steer his car through the wreckage strewn across the circuit.

Japanese Takuma Sato, in a Jordan-Honda, was fastest early on the session to the delight of the home crowd inside the Suzuka circuit where thousands of Japanese fans basked in the morning sunshine. More than 10,000 Toyota staff, it was reported, were being transported into the circuit each day and the Sato fan club had their own grandstand.

But Sato did not stay fastest for long and when the session resumed after a 10-minutes delay he was soon relegated to a more familiar position in the lower half of the order as the usual suspects began to exercise control over the leading positions.

Schumacher was soon fastest in his Ferrari, but his teammate Rubens Barrichello found the going more difficult and he had one unscheduled off-track excursion early in the second half of the morning hour, but without any damage to car or driver.

By the end of the session, the champion was two-tenths of a second clear of Barrichello in second ahead of Briton David Coulthard, in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, and his teammate Finn Kimi Raikkonen. Juan Pablo Montoya was fifth for Williams-BMW ahead of his teammate Ralf Schumacher.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:36.109  218.040 km/h  16  
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:36.348    +    0.239  14  
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:36.760    +    0.651   8  
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:37.268    +    1.159  14  
 5.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:37.316    +    1.207  12  
 6.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:37.614    +    1.505  16  
 7.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:38.425    +    2.316  11  
 8.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:38.426    +    2.317  16  
 9.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:38.630    +    2.521  15  
10.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:38.640    +    2.531  14  
11.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:38.698    +    2.589  16  
12.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:38.801    +    2.692  17  
13.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:38.912    +    2.803  22  
14.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:39.054    +    2.945   6  
15.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:39.208    +    3.099  16  
16.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:39.278    +    3.169  18  
17.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:39.364    +    3.255  17  
18.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:40.710    +    4.601  18  
19.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:40.967    +    4.858   4  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:41.596    +    5.487  19  

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 03:14:48 GMT