OrangeArrows unworried about Friday practice times

By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

Despite being placed 19th and 21st on the timesheets at the end of free practice on Friday Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi pronounced themselves pleased with the work that they had done in setting up their A23s, in readiness for the race proper on Sunday.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "We got some good work done this morning in the wet conditions. It's quite interesting to run here in the wet as this is one of the few times we have seen rain here in Melbourne. I had a small problem with the car but nothing we can't fix. It's not a good idea to try to judge our competitiveness by today's times, we really have to wait until tomorrow for that."

Enrique Bernoldi: "The morning session went really well for me today. The car felt good on a wet and intermediate set-up so I'm pleased about that. I had a gearbox problem in the second session, which is a shame as it stopped me early on but we still have time tomorrow to finish the work we need to do. I have to say that overall I am pretty happy with the progress we have made so far."

Team boss, Tom Walkinshaw, also appeared unworried about his cars positions today. He echos his drivers comments in that the session was useful, especially with regard to the wet 2nd session that allowed the team to plan ahead in case a similar circumstance occurs during the race on Sunday.

"Today's sessions went pretty much as we planned," Walkinshaw said to the official Arrows website. "The times were quick this morning so the car looks to be in good shape. Enrique did some good work this morning but had a small gearbox problem during the afternoon session. Heinz-Harald has settled in extremely well with the team and we're happy with what he has done today. He was running on full tanks this afternoon in case the race is dry and we get more rain tomorrow. This also meant we could check the brakes on high fuel loads."