Australian GP Friday Jordan notes

McLaren and Ferrari strong in free practice

The Formula One 2000 season finally began today with free practice at the Albert Park, Melbourne. McLaren and Ferrari once again looked strong, finishing the day a full second ahead of the competition. But, with teams working on different agendas in this practice session, the real test of performance will not come until tomorrow's qualifying.

For Benson and Hedges Jordan there were mixed results. Heinz-Harald Frentzen enjoyed a trouble free session, completing 35 laps in the 7th best time of the day. Jarno Trulli was beset by problems and did not run in the morning because of a gearbox oil leak. He finished the session in 15th place.

Commenting on the day, Frentzen said, ""I had a good trouble free session working on all the things we wanted to test so I am quite satisfied with how that went. We completed 35 laps which has given us some good information to work on for tomorrow."

Trulli was disappointed with his day. "Today was very disappointing for me as I lost a lot of time of the track because of various problems. I lost the whole of the first session because of an oil leak in the gearbox and in the afternoon session I had a problem with the gearbox and the clutch. It meant I have not been able to work on the balance of the car as much as I would have liked. But I do have some data to work on this evening and this will help us decide what we need to work on tomorrow morning."

Jacques Villeneuve ran strongly in the BAR, finishing in 5th place, with a surprisingly fast Pedro Diniz behind him in 6th.F1 newcomer Jenson Button, in the Williams team, finished 18th, but looked happy enough with the day's work when he attended an official FIA press conference in the afternoon. Jarno Trulli was also invited to the conference. In answer to journalists' questions about how he found life at Jordan, the Italian said, "I am really happy in my new team. Everyone is so professional and we are working very well together. This will be a very important season for me and I am really looking forward to racing in a competitive car."