Friday Practice

By Vicki
August 31 2002

Morning mist at the Spa Francorchamps circuit forced officials to delay today’s free practice by one hour because of safety concerns about flying the medical helicopter – not an unusual problem at this circuit given its location in the Ardennes valley.

A shortened first session of 30 minutes got under way at midday while the afternoon session went ahead at the normal time for the usual 60 minutes.

Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa were hammered with minor technical hiccups but nonetheless made the most of the two sessions with Pedro completing a best lap time of 1.48.902 securing him 7th place after 18 laps. Eddie ran for 16 laps to place him 9th with a best time of 1.51:202. Apart from new components on the front suspension, there are no significant modifications to the Jaguar R3 this weekend.

The delay and subsequent shortened practice session was not the best thing for Jaguar, as Irvine pointed out, "Losing track time isn’t a problem when you have no issues but is a double-disaster when you are trying to fix problems and beat the clock."

Jaguar team-mate Pedro de la Rosa is looking forward to the qualifying session, "The weather will always play a critical role in determining the outcome tomorrow and it goes without saying that we do not need rain."