Trackside comment from the third and fourth practice sessions on Saturday was very scant from an Arrows point of view. Both Heinz-Harald and Enrique put in ten laps each, with Frentzen knocking on the door of the top ten by recording the 11th fastest time. Enrique could only manage 15th, nearly six tenths slower.

Heinz-Harald completed an additional 16 laps during the final session and, despite shaving almost a tenth off his lap time, ended free practice in 18th place. Enrique made up those six tenths lost in the third session, but his best time was only 20th fastest by the end of the 45 minute session. Both practices were free of incident for the team, apart from a harmless spin from Heinz-Harald Frentzen on his final run of the final session, with new tyres on the rear of his car.

The TV coverage of the qualifying hour was also predominantly Arrows free, although the German TV director did cut to the airbox camera of Heinz-Harald’s A23 a couple of times. The OrangeArrows cars did not look to have any deficiencies, they were cornering well and neither driver appeared to be fighting their cars – they simply weren’t fast enough.

Heinz-Harald gave Arrows fans some glimmer of hope by netting ninth a little over half way through the qualifying hour, but rapid improvements from other drivers soon demoted that effort to 15th. Enrique Bernoldi put in his laps early in the session, and was seen to get caught up in the traffic jam at the end of the session when all 22 cars were on the circuit.

OrangeArrows will start tomorrows European Grand Prix with Frentzen in 15th and Bernoldi 21st.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon