Australian GP: Jordan Friday notes

Ferrari dominates intriguing practice sessions

Michael Schumacher dominated the opening practice sessions of the 2002 Formula One World Championship in Albert Park, Melbourne, the reigning World Champion edging out team mate Rubens Barrichello with a time of 1:27.276 - a full half second faster than the Brazilian. The DHL Jordan Honda team enjoyed a promising practice, Giancarlo Fisichella third fastest in the first one hour period before dropping back to 9th fastest overall and team mate Takuma Sato showing great maturity with a solid drive in wet-then-dry conditions to line up 13th.

Fisichella's session was brought to a premature halt when his car pulled off the track in the closing minutes smoke billowing from the rear of the EJ12. With no obvious problems visible on the team's telemetry system the car was being stripped down after the session to determine the source of the problem.

"Not a bad start to the weekend at all," said Giancarlo. "The first session, when I finished third in the timings, went very well. In the second session I tried some different set-ups, concentrating mainly on race configuration."

Sato had a relatively trouble free day. "I must say I am pretty happy. It was very exciting to have my first outing at a Grand Prix weekend and overall I am very pleased at how it went. I lost about ten minutes of running time towards the end of the second session due to a problem with my steering column, but otherwise things ran smoothly."

Behind the dominant Ferrari pairing the BMW Williams' of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were followed by Nick Heidfeld's Sauber and the impressive Toyota of Mika Salo. Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren was 7th, team mate David Coulthard in 11th, while Felipe Massa was 8th for Sauber and former Jordan driver Jarno Trulli followed Fisichella into 10th position in his Renault. Team mate Jensen Button was 15th.

The BAR Hondas of Jacques Villeneuve and Oliver Panis were 12th and 18th, the Jaguars of Pedro De La Rosa and Eddie Irvine 14th and 17th, Allan McNish 16th in the second Toyota while the rear of the field was brought up by Arrows and Minardi.

-jordan-