By Greig Murray
April 29 2002

Ferrari will start the 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix from 2nd and 8th places. Michael Schumacher never got the best out of the F2002 and Rubens Barrichello in the F2001 struggled to make any impression at the front.

After a lot of hard work in the practice sessions Ferrari were very confident going into the hour long session. With Michael Schumacher hoping to take his F2002 to pole position, while Rubens Barrichello in the F2001 will be wanting to be as close to the front of the grid as possible and prove that even the old car is fast enough to give him success in the race. For Rubens Barrichello his qualifying has already been hindered as he will lose his fastest time for an earlier infringement in the pit lane, so he will need 2 very quick laps today.

15 minutes into the session and the Ferrari's remain in the garage with both drivers talking calmly to their mechanics and looking very confident for the remainder of the session. The sun is beating down and the track temperatures are higher than that of Malaysia so the new Bridgestone tyres will face their first test of the weekend. McLaren's Raikkonen is the first of the front runners to take to the track along with his team mate Coulthard, Coulthard moves into provisional pole while Raikkonen parks on the grass with another blown engine.

Barrichello is the first of the Ferrari drivers to take to the circuit and he opens his account with a lap of 1 minute 13.935 seconds and into P1 but Montoya and R Schumacher in the Williams are on the track and looking fast. And Montoya takes the new fastest lap but Ralf is pushing and he takes the new fastest lap of the day so far giving the Ferrari's something to aim for. Michael Schumacher is finally out on track with about 30 minutes remaining and his opening run was not as smooth as he would have liked but a fast lap and P2 with a 1.13.424.

Barrichello is back out on track after a trip to the weigh-bridge and the Brazilian has been dropped to 5th place as Coulthard goes into P4, Rubens is looking confident and he is matching the pace of Schumacher in sector 1, but not so good in sector 2 and crosses the line with a 1.13.919 but no improvement in position, and he will now lose that lap as his punishment for jumping the red light in the pit lane. Montoya is next to take a run and he snatches 2nd place with a fast lap while Kimi Raikkonen is also back out and looking ragged as he still has to qualify for the race.

Schumacher is back out and once again he is looking not at ease with the car as he fights the car on the limit, he goes faster than he had been at sector 1, sector 2 is good and close to Ralf, and he crosses the line with an improved time but still third on the grid, Schumacher has still to get the perfect lap out of the chassis, and he has two more runs to do so. Barrichello is back out but no improvement on his earlier time, one run left for Rubens and it looks like he is going to have to settle for around 6th place on the grid. With 10 minutes to go Montoya takes the provisional pole and drops the time to a 1.13.114

5 minutes to go and the world champion is once again back on track and once again he is constantly fighting the car more than he would like, but still the pace is good and he improves his best time to a 1.13.241 and moves himself into 2nd place. And that's the way the session would end, with Michael in 2nd and in a very strong position for the race, while Barrichello will have his work cut out from 8th on the grid.

1. MONTOYA Williams BMW 1'13"114 212.167 Km/h
2. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1'13"241 + 0'00"127
3. R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1'13"328 + 0'00"214
4. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1'13"565 + 0'00"451
5. RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes 1'13"595 + 0'00"481
6. TRULLI Renault 1'13"611 + 0'00"497
7. BUTTON Renault 1'13"665 + 0'00"551
8. BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1'13"935 + 0'00"821
9. HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1'14"233 + 0'01"119
10. SALO Toyota 1'14"443 + 0'01"329
11. DE LA ROSA Jaguar Cosworth 1'14"464 + 0'01"350
12. MASSA Sauber Petronas 1'14"533 + 0'01"419
13. IRVINE Jaguar Cosworth 1'14"537 + 0'01"423
14. FISICHELLA Jordan Honda 1'14"748 + 0'01"634
15. VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1'14"760 + 0'01"646
16. MCNISH Toyota 1'14"990 + 0'01"876
17. PANIS BAR Honda 1'14"996 + 0'01"882
18. FRENTZEN Arrows Cosworth 1'15"112 + 0'01"998
19. SATO Jordan Honda 1'15"296 + 0'02"182
20. WEBBER Minardi Asiatech 1'15"340 + 0'02"226
21. BERNOLDI Arrows Cosworth 1'15"355 + 0'02"241
22. YOONG Minardi Asiatech 1'16"728 + 0'03"614