By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

OrangeArrows had a mixed qualifying session at Sepang. Both drivers looked to be settling for the bottom end of the top 15, but a searing lap from Heinz-Harald Frentzen a little over half way through the session popped him up to the bottom end of the top 10. The team start the race from 11th & 16th. The qualifying hour started in a temperature of 32 degrees C with the air very humid, but at least it was dry.

Local boy Alex Yoong was the first driver to take to the track in his Minardi. Alex sets the first time of the day, a 1.40.617 which is about 4 seconds of the pace set by Juan Pablo Montoya during the morning practices. Mark Webber followed his Minardi team mate as soon as Alex had finished. Webber was inside Alex's time in sector one, and two, and unsurprisingly therefore posts a faster lap time, a 1.39.950 .

Jordan's Takuma Sato was next and was 2/10ths inside Webbers time immediately in sector one, -1.465 at sector two, and a lap time of 1.38.179 blows the European Minardi lap by -1.771 seconds.

Jarno Trulli popped out next and his experience immediately showed with his Renault, -0.335 inside Sato at sector one, but then dropped a few 10ths in sector two. As Trulli sets the provisional pole time of 1.37.920, Enrique Bernoldi takes to the track. Bernoldi's first recorded lap is 0.587 off of Trulli's time.

Trulli and Bernoldi laps 15 minutes into the session seemed to be the signal to everyone else to take to the track and the timing table rapidly filled with names. Enrique Bernoldi's first lap placed him fourth, but within minutes that had become 11th, 1.9 seconds off the pace now set by Juan Pablo Montoya. No lap time had been set by Heinz-Harald Frentzen yet.

As Ralf Schumacher sets the fastest lap time of the session with 36 minutes left to go, Frentzen suddenly appears on the time sheets in 13th 2.592 of the provisional pole time. This places OrangeArrows just ahead of the two Minardi's.

As Michael Schumacher sets a new provisional pole time by a 10th of a second over his brother, Bernoldi and Frentzen have both improved. Bernoldi is 14th 2.538 of the pace, and Frentzen is 15th 2.709 slower. The bad news here is that fellow Cosworth powered Pedro de la Rosa is placed 12th, but there is still 30 minutes of the session to go.

Rubens Barrichello's first attempt places him 3rd pushing the remainder of the grid down the order by one place. As Barrichello crosses the line Enrique Bernoldi takes to the track for another attempt.

With 20 minutes to go, Frentzen has improved to pop just ahead of his team mate and is now 15th 2.796 off the pace.

With 14 minutes of the session remaining, Heinz-Harald Frentzen suddenly finds the setup and the speed he wanted popping his A23 on the 10th spot ! Bernoldi is still placed 16th, nearly 7/10ths slower than his team mate. With 8 minutes to go before the end of the session, 10th has become 11th, and Frentzen sets out for his last run of the afternoon. Unfortunately his last flying run is not good enough to move him back to P10, Enrique meanwhile is still 16th.

And that is where the qualifying hour finished for OrangeArrows. 11th is a superb effort and bang on with what Mike Coughlan wanted, but is dangerous in that if there is a first corner clash then Frentzen is likely to get caught up in it. Starting from 16th, which is better from Bernoldi than in 2001, is safer from a first corner point of view.

We'll see what happens when the lights go out tomorrow. It's worth noting that rain is forecast for the race tomorrow, and that played into the hands of the team last year.