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Formula One: Stewart-Ford Notes, Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice

14 May 1999

Rubens Barrichello ended today's free practice seventh fastest. He spent most of the time working on the correct race set-up for his 100th Grand Prix. He did a total of 32 laps.

Johnny Herbert was 10th fastest - only just over three-tenths of a second slower than Barrichello. He completed 31 laps.

The Stewart-Ford team concentrated on finding the correct tyre and suspension set up for the unusual Monaco street circuit.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO Car No.16 (SF3-04)
1:23.545 32 laps 7th position

'I'm pleased with today. I struggled with traffic at the end of the second session and spent 95 percent of the time looking for a good race set up. I think we still have a problem with oversteer in medium speed corners but I'm confident we will sort this out before Saturday's qualifying.'

JOHNNY HERBERT Car No.17 (SF3-05))
1:23.865 31 laps 10th position

'I had no particular problem apart from a lot of understeer this morning. We changed the car for the second session to try and reduce the understeer but actually went too far. The thing with Monaco is that it's all about balance and to be honest we haven't found the perfect set up but we know what we have to do to improve matters before Saturday's qualifying.'

PAUL STEWART, SGP Deputy Chairman

'We had two productive sessions today. Both Rubens and Johnny went through an extensive programme of evaluating tyres and suspension settings. Today's two practice sessions bode well for good qualifying performances.'

NEIL RESSLER, Vice-President, Research & Vehicle Technology, Ford

'Today's practice performances look promising. We experienced no major mechanical problems and after the recent testing session at Nogaro we're confident about reliability for the race. In both qualifying and the race we plan to use the higher rev limit on the Ford Cosworth V10 CR-1 engine, which we used successfully at Nogaro.'

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