Bernoldi on track
Arrows disappoint in qualifying at Silverstone
Bernoldi on track
By subh
July 6 2002
Despite all the earlier troubles of the weekend, Orange Arrows made it through qualifying at Silverstone, but came up short of their ultimate potential.
Bernoldi on track
July 6 2002
Despite all the earlier troubles of the weekend, Orange Arrows made it through qualifying at Silverstone, but came up short of their ultimate potential.
Enrique Bernoldi’s was the first car to venture out for qualifying, about 20 minutes into the session, and he recorded a lap in 1min 23.1secs. Unfortunately, this was quickly followed by the first Ferrari lap, with Michael Schumacher going 3.5s faster right away. When Heinz-Harald Frentzen made his first run he was in a very attacking mood, and this put him just over 2.6s behind Schumacher, and into fifth position. Bernoldi was already back to tenth and, very soon, Frentzen was also pushed back a couple of positions.
Bernoldi’s second attempt allowed him to close up the nine-tenths gap to his team-mate, but in no time the Arrows were placed 14th and 15th. Frentzen’s second run then took him back to ninth, in the closely spaced midfield bunch, but the margin to pole was widened not long after this when Schumacher improved by almost half a second. Frentzen was 2.37s back at this point.
As a gaggle of runners continued to improve their standings, Frentzen was pushed back to 12th, and then right down to 16th, whilst Bernoldi, who was 0.5s adrift of the German, found himself in 19th place. The Brazilian’s final run gained him two slots back, but a late burst of activity involving most of the field finally fixed the two orange cars in 16th and 18th places. Pole position was ultimately secured by the Williams-BMW of Juan Montoya, with the Colombian firing off an impressive lap time a shade under 1m 19s.
The only consolation for Arrows was that the two Jaguar R3B cars could do no better than 19th and 21st, despite their all-new aerodynamic package. The Arrows team will hope to make some improvements overnight, and aim towards the top ten for the race. Team comments were as follows:
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
“We tried very hard today but unfortunately on my last run I caught traffic. It was a very tight session so just one tenth of a second can make a difference of three or four places. You have to get everything together for the last run, as that is the one that counts. I had three clear runs and then on the one that mattered I had traffic.”
Enrique Bernoldi
“I’m pleased that we were able to improve the car with each run today. We are still struggling slightly for optimum balance in qualifying trim but I am hopeful for a good race tomorrow.”
Graham Taylor, chief race engineer
“Well first of all it’s good to be part of the action again! Enrique managed to improve throughout the session but Heinz had a few problems with understeer. In the last sector on his final run he was four tenths slower than previously as he came across one of the Williams cars. As the grid is so tight that four tenths would have meant a top ten result for us but that’s life. We’re pleased we didn’t have any technical problems after missing out on practice yesterday but a little disappointed as our positions don’t reflect our pace. I’d like to say well done to the team for staying focused throughout the weekend.”
Bernoldi’s second attempt allowed him to close up the nine-tenths gap to his team-mate, but in no time the Arrows were placed 14th and 15th. Frentzen’s second run then took him back to ninth, in the closely spaced midfield bunch, but the margin to pole was widened not long after this when Schumacher improved by almost half a second. Frentzen was 2.37s back at this point.
As a gaggle of runners continued to improve their standings, Frentzen was pushed back to 12th, and then right down to 16th, whilst Bernoldi, who was 0.5s adrift of the German, found himself in 19th place. The Brazilian’s final run gained him two slots back, but a late burst of activity involving most of the field finally fixed the two orange cars in 16th and 18th places. Pole position was ultimately secured by the Williams-BMW of Juan Montoya, with the Colombian firing off an impressive lap time a shade under 1m 19s.
The only consolation for Arrows was that the two Jaguar R3B cars could do no better than 19th and 21st, despite their all-new aerodynamic package. The Arrows team will hope to make some improvements overnight, and aim towards the top ten for the race. Team comments were as follows:
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
“We tried very hard today but unfortunately on my last run I caught traffic. It was a very tight session so just one tenth of a second can make a difference of three or four places. You have to get everything together for the last run, as that is the one that counts. I had three clear runs and then on the one that mattered I had traffic.”
Enrique Bernoldi
“I’m pleased that we were able to improve the car with each run today. We are still struggling slightly for optimum balance in qualifying trim but I am hopeful for a good race tomorrow.”
Graham Taylor, chief race engineer
“Well first of all it’s good to be part of the action again! Enrique managed to improve throughout the session but Heinz had a few problems with understeer. In the last sector on his final run he was four tenths slower than previously as he came across one of the Williams cars. As the grid is so tight that four tenths would have meant a top ten result for us but that’s life. We’re pleased we didn’t have any technical problems after missing out on practice yesterday but a little disappointed as our positions don’t reflect our pace. I’d like to say well done to the team for staying focused throughout the weekend.”
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