Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time of the
session ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher. Kimi Raikkonen was 3rd but a
massive 1.843 seconds behind with Takuma Sato in 4th, Montoya in 5th and Nick
Heidfeld in 6th.
Behind the Ferraris, the field is very close, under 2
seconds separate Raikkonen in second and Panis in 18th!.
There were no major incidents during the session. David
Coulthard had smoke coming out from the back of his car but managed to get
back to the pits. Ralf Schumacher and Enrique Bernoldi appeared to have
problems and only managed to set a time towards the end of the session.
Michael Schumacher and Takuma Sato covered the most number
of laps with 15 each while Ralf Schumacher did the least number of laps with 5
and David Coulthard only managed 8 laps.
The track conditions were cool and that would disadvantage
the Michelin runners but even then the pace of the Ferraris seems to indicate
a lighter fuel load for the race (2 stops) but that remains to be seen. The
weather is expected to get warmer and that would benefit the Michelins.
Will Montoya be able to hold the Ferraris at bay ? We'll
have to wait and see.
Race starts at 1:00 PM
local time. Our
coverage starts at 12:30 PM local time.
