10th fastest today

OrangeArrows put in another spirited performance during free practice today in Montréal. Enrique Bernoldi was the sole runner for the start of the first session, but half way through Heinz-Harald Frentzen bettered Enrique’s initial tenth best time. Frentzen spent the next ten minutes re-aquainting himself with the circuit, and them improved to tenth, eighth, sixth and then second fastest over successive laps ! This left the German 0.418s off current pace setter Michael Schumacher, with 20 minutes of the session to go.

Enrique’s first practice came to a sudden halt with 15 minutes left, when his A23 suddenly slowed at Turn six. He pulled off the circuit having registered the tenth fastest time so far after ten laps. Heinz-Harald meantime remained in the Arrows garage and saw his second spot beaten first by Giancarlo Fisichella and then by Rubens Barrichello. Kimi Räikkönen then pinched the fourth spot, only to lose it to team-mate David Coulthard - the net result of which was Frentzen in sixth spot. Heinz-Harald did make it out for the last few minutes, and despite a spin circulated until the end of the session.

The team went into the second practice in sixth and 17th positions. Despite Enrique suffering technical problems, he made it back out onto the circuit and completed another 18 laps without further problems. The Brazilian made storming progress on his lap times, improving by over two seconds to finish Friday free practice in 13th. Heinz-Harald also improved, by just over 1.5 seconds to finish in tenth.

All in all a strong and encouraging free practice for the OrangeArrows team. More of the same tomorrow please !

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