Barrichello Sets Pace in Opening USGP Practice - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

gaijin · 06-18-2004

Barrichello Sets Pace in Opening USGP Practice
Written by: RACER staff
Indianapolis, Ind. â€“ 6/18/2004

Rubens Barrichello set the pace in the first free practice session for this weekend's U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Teammate Michael Schumacher made it a Ferrari 1-2 by posting the second-fastest time, a quarter of a second down on the Brazilian.

BAR's Friday tester Anthony Davidson kept the two Ferraris in his sights with the third-quickest time ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, the quickest of the Williams-BMW pair. Toyota's test driver Ricardo Zonta was fifth, ahead of Jaguar's test driver Bjorn Wirdheim.

Zonta set the initial pace in the first session, which falls less than a week after the grid lined up for the Canadian GP in Montreal. Davidson was determined to maintain his impressive record on Fridays by claiming a spot near the top. At the 25-minute mark,
however, Schumacher made himself known by knocking nearly two seconds off Zonta's time. A lap later and the German slashed a further 1.6sec off his time to set his best effort of the session â€“ 1:11.619.

Barrichello evidently decided it was time to take a turn in the limelight, however, and put in a lap just two hundredths of a second faster than Schumacher. With 10 minutes left of the session, the Brazilian knocked a further two tenths off his previous best.

BAR-Honda's Jenson Button showed initial promise at one point behind the Ferraris in third, but it wasn't to last and the Briton dropped to seventh ahead of Sauber-Petronas' Giancarlo Fisichella, who ran fourth at one point â€“ aided with the fastest top speed in the traps at 203mph.

The remaining big hitters featured outside the top 10. Williams' Ralf Schumacher was 10th while McLaren-Mercedes' Kimi Raikkonen (12th) was sandwiched between the two Renaults of Fernando Alonso (11th) and Jarno Trulli (13th). McLaren's David Coulthard languished down in 18th.

The red flag was brought out once during the session following a spin from Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni. Other excursions off track included those from Takuma Sato, Coulthard and Bjorn Wirdheim.

06-18-2004	#1
gaijin Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Road Atlanta Posts: 371	Barrichello Sets Pace in Opening USGP Practice Barrichello Sets Pace in Opening USGP Practice Written by: RACER staff Indianapolis, Ind. â€“ 6/18/2004 Rubens Barrichello set the pace in the first free practice session for this weekend's U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Teammate Michael Schumacher made it a Ferrari 1-2 by posting the second-fastest time, a quarter of a second down on the Brazilian. BAR's Friday tester Anthony Davidson kept the two Ferraris in his sights with the third-quickest time ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, the quickest of the Williams-BMW pair. Toyota's test driver Ricardo Zonta was fifth, ahead of Jaguar's test driver Bjorn Wirdheim. Zonta set the initial pace in the first session, which falls less than a week after the grid lined up for the Canadian GP in Montreal. Davidson was determined to maintain his impressive record on Fridays by claiming a spot near the top. At the 25-minute mark, however, Schumacher made himself known by knocking nearly two seconds off Zonta's time. A lap later and the German slashed a further 1.6sec off his time to set his best effort of the session â€“ 1:11.619. Barrichello evidently decided it was time to take a turn in the limelight, however, and put in a lap just two hundredths of a second faster than Schumacher. With 10 minutes left of the session, the Brazilian knocked a further two tenths off his previous best. BAR-Honda's Jenson Button showed initial promise at one point behind the Ferraris in third, but it wasn't to last and the Briton dropped to seventh ahead of Sauber-Petronas' Giancarlo Fisichella, who ran fourth at one point â€“ aided with the fastest top speed in the traps at 203mph. The remaining big hitters featured outside the top 10. Williams' Ralf Schumacher was 10th while McLaren-Mercedes' Kimi Raikkonen (12th) was sandwiched between the two Renaults of Fernando Alonso (11th) and Jarno Trulli (13th). McLaren's David Coulthard languished down in 18th. The red flag was brought out once during the session following a spin from Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni. Other excursions off track included those from Takuma Sato, Coulthard and Bjorn Wirdheim.