European GP: Arrows Friday notes

Free Practice for the 2002 European Grand Prix got underway at the Nurburgring in Germany today. The circuit, celebrating its 75th anniversary, has been modified since last year so there was some acclimatisation to do for all the drivers.

OrangeArrows driver, Enrique Bernoldi, suffered a spin at turn six, 40 minutes into the first session which resulted in contact with the wall. This delayed his next outing until 25 minutes into the second session. Once back on track he was able to make steady progress for the remainder of today's running and finished in 19th place. His team-mate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the day in 13th position.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen

"We had a fairly productive first day of running, evaluating the balance of the car and racing fuel levels. I'm not yet happy with the balance but we are working on that. I like the new track layout. I've got used to the new combination of corners now and I think it will create some overtaking opportunities in the race on Sunday."

Enrique Bernoldi

"I lost a lot of track time today after my spin in the first session but I think we pretty much caught up with ourselves. I had enough time to evaluate the tyres although we still have a bit of work to do with the balance of the car as we are struggling a bit there. The changes to the track are okay but the new complex is pretty slow."

Graham Taylor, Chief Race Engineer, OrangeArrows

"We struggled a bit today with the compromise between the low speed and high speed corners - what you gain in one, you lose in another! We got through our tyre assessments and did our analysis work for the race. We'll be looking at our data this afternoon to find the step forward we need to make."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Position: 13th
Best Time: 1:34.315
No. of laps: 35
Chassis No: A23-01
T-Car Chassis: A23-04

Enrique Bernoldi
Position: 19th
Best Time: 1:35.260
No. of laps: 26
Chassis No: A23-03

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