By pitpass.com (19/07/2003)
July 19 2003

The Toyotas of Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis are first out for today's second, and final, free practice session followed by the Renaults of Alonso and Trulli. Keeping it all symmetrical the two McLarens are next out. 1:25.430 for da Matta as the Brazilian posts the benchmark, moments later Alonso gets serious with a 1:22.956 only for Coulthard to go half-a-second quicker.

Trulli goes third ahead of Raikkonen as Webber goes second with a 1:22.910 and team-mate Pizzonia goes fifth.

The two Ferraris are on track the only man to beat them in the first session was Raikkonen. Michael Schumacher is quickest of all in the first sector and again in the second. 1:21.608 the German goes quickest by almost a full second, team-mate Barrichello however can only manage twelfth.

Frentzen goes sixth as Rubens improves to eighth, still no times from Montoya, Verstappen or Villeneuve, whose engine blew in the first session.

1:23.479, Montoya finally posts a time and it's good enough for sixth as Panis crosses the line in 1:22.257 to go second quickest, albeit 0.649s off the pace. Next time around Montoya improves but remains sixth.

Villeneuve waits in the BAR pit clearly frustrated. This is another massive blow for the Canadian who has had some appalling luck this season. In France the impounding of the cars meant that they missed the Friday practice session, and now this. Maybe Jacques should simply accept that as far as BAR is concerned there's some sort of curse on him - a bit like anyone involved with pitpass.

Fisichella goes thirteenth, the little Italian driving be the seat of his pants, team-mate Ralph Firman is sixteenth. Talking of Ralph, Geoff Collins has interviewed the Anglo-Irish driver, watch out for it on pitpass on Monday.

1:22.332 sees Jarno Trulli go third, another brave effort from another Italian.

At this stage the order is Schumacher ahead of Panis, Trulli, Coulthard, da Matta, Webber, Alonso, Montoya, Frentzen and Raikkonen.

1:23.595 is good enough for Jenson Button to go ninth, added misery for his team-mate who can only watch in helpless frustration.

1:21.898 and Montoya goes second a mere 0.290s off Schumacher's pace though we're still around 1.6s off David Coulthard's best time from the first session. The Colombian's team-mate Ralf Schumacher is down in fifteenth, 2.7s off the pace.

1:21.712, Ralf gets a 'wake-up' call and promptly goes second.

Both Sauber drivers have completed fifteen laps - more than anyone else - but remain eleventh (Frentzen) and seventeenth (Heidfeld). That said, Barrichello remains a lowly fourteenth.

Alonso improves and goes sixth, with fifteen minutes remaining the order is Schumacher ahead of Ralf, Montoya, Barrichello - who has just improved - Panis, Trulli, Alonso, Coulthard, da Matta and Webber. Still no time from Villeneuve as his engineers continue to work on his car.

Michael has a moment and goes off, but as we've seen so many times in the past luck is on his side and he's able to continue, he returns to his garage.

Button improves but remains eleventh as Pizzonia's session comes to an abrupt end in the first sector right beside the pitlane - one could say that his session has been terminated!

Other than Villeneuve, who has yet to appear this session, it's business as usual at the wrong end of the timesheets with the Minardis propping up Heidfeld and the two Jordans, though Raikkonen is still languishing in thirteenth (ahead of Pizzonia), two-seconds off the pace.

As da Matta goes tenth with a 1:22.614, Raikkonen goes seventh with a 1:22.400.

With under four minutes remaining Villeneuve finally appears, the Canadian should be able to get in a couple of laps.

1:21.415 sees Montoya go quickest as fellow South American Rubens Barrichello improves to go second a mere 0.172 behind the WilliamsF1 driver.

Unbelievably Villeneuve appears to have another engine problem, the car is going very, very slowly, the guy will be going ballistic!

Ralf improves but remains fourth, he's now 0.296s off the pace.

False alarm for Villeneuve as the Canadian goes twelfth with a 1:23.326, it's a superb gritty performance which puts him ahead of his team-mate.

The session ends with Montoya topping the timesheets ahead of Barrichello, Michael, Ralf, Panis, Coulthard, Trulli, Raikkonen, Alonso and da Matta.

Other than the two Ferraris the first eleven positions are dominated by French rubber and with this afternoon's qualifying hour looking as though it will not be affected by rain, we should be in for a good fight between the WilliamsF1s and the boys from Maranello.


This article was written by pitpass.com and is used with permission.