2002 French Grand Prix Free Practice
Honda F1 Press Information 19 July 2002 FISICHELLA LEADS HONDA-POWERED FOURSOME Jordan Honda driver finishes 12th in French Free Practice Giancarlo Fisichella (DHL Jordan Honda) finished 12th to head the Honda-powered quartet in today’s free practice session for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. Oliver Panis (Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda) recorded 14th place, followed by Jordan Honda's Takuma Sato in 15th position. Jacques Villenueve (B.A.R Honda) finished 17th overall. Conditions remained warm and sunny (25 degrees) in Magny-Cours for the free practice session, which was characterised by a series of spins as the majority of drivers struggled to find grip as the track temperature soared to 28 degrees. The Honda-powered drivers were no exception, all four going off the track at different times throughout the sessions. B.A.R Honda's Jacques Villeneuve's car had to be retrieved from a gravel trap as a result of a spin in the morning session, but there was no significant damage and he continued to run in the afternoon. The remaining three Honda drivers recovered from their spins without any problems and all four completed a total of 163 laps between them. On his way to completing 38 laps Jordan Honda's Giancarlo Fisichella set the 12th quickest time overall, which was the fastest time recorded by a Bridgestone-shod car after the two Ferraris. The Italian set a best time of 1m15.422s, improving on his original best lap of the morning by just over one second. B.A.R Honda's Olivier Panis, who is the only French driver in Formula One at present, completed 43 laps of the 2.641km Circuit de Nevers and is relishing the challenge of achieving good results in front of his home crowd this weekend. Panis finished in 14th position overall with a best time of 1m16.163s, an improvement of seven tenths on his fastest time of the morning. Jordan Honda's Takuma Sato completed a total of 47 laps, the highest of the Honda-powered drivers, finishing in 15th position overall with a time of 1m16.167s, an improvement of three tenths of a second on his initial time. B.A.R Honda's Jacques Villeneuve finished in 18th place in the morning but improved on his initial time by one second in the afternoon, setting the 17th best time overall of 1m16.457s and covering 35 laps. The McLarens of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen finished in first and second positions respectively in today's free practice, followed by the Ferrari pairing of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Ralf Scumacher (Williams) and Jaguar's Eddie Irvine set the fifth and sixth fastest times. Shuhei Nakamoto – Race and Test Team Manager, Honda Racing Development "Once again the Honda-powered drivers have managed to complete a good number of laps today – over 160 between them – which was our main objective for today and gives us a lot of information to work on. We've got more horsepower for qualifying so we're looking forward to improved positions tomorrow and a good result on Sunday." Giancarlo Fisichella Position: 12th "We are still struggling a little bit with set-up and grip, but it doesn't look too bad. We have a few new things on the car and will have more power for qualifying so I'm a bit more optimistic than normal. If we do well, a top ten grid result is possible." Olivier Panis Position: 14th "Today was a typical Friday, working for the race and trying to find the right balance for the car. We haven't achieved that yet and we still have a lot of work to do with the tyres in particular. We will try a few new things tomorrow including of course a new evolution of the Honda engine so I am looking forward to a better day tomorrow." Takuma Sato Position: 15th "We're in quite good shape today with no mechanical troubles at all. It was my first outing here in an F1 car and I found the circuit very smooth and good fun to drive, although on the approach to a couple of chicanes, visibility is a bit tricky. We had a good pace straight away and our tyres look quite competitive. I'm optimistic for tomorrow." Jacques Villeneuve Position: 17th "We've had a hard time today finding the right set-up so it hasn't been the best start to the weekend. We still need to do a lot of work with the tyre options because we haven't been able to get the best from them yet. We're basically looking for more grip so we have to come up with a solution for that but it looks like it could be tougher for us this weekend." Today’s results 1. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1'14"025 2. RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes 1'14"097 3. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1'14"240 4. BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1'14"750 5. R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1'14"970 6. IRVINE Jaguar Cosworth 1'14"983 7. SALO Toyota 1'15"161 8. DE LA ROSA Jaguar Cosworth 1'15"179 9. BUTTON Renault 1'15"218 10. MONTOYA Williams BMW 1'15"271 11. MCNISH Toyota 1'15"411 12. FISICHELLA Jordan Honda 1'15"422 13. MASSA Sauber Petronas 1'16"030 14. PANIS B.A.R Honda 1'16"163 15. SATO Jordan Honda 1'16"167 16. HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1'16"209 17. VILLENEUVE B.A.R Honda 1'16"457 18. WEBBER Minardi Asiatech 1'16"496 19. TRULLI Renault 1'16"763 20. YOONG Minardi Asiatech 1'19"015