29/03/2002

Brazilian Grand Prix - Free Practice Report

Allan McNish's first ever visit to the bumpy Interlagos circuit produced a superb third place for Panasonic Toyota Racing after the first day of free practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.

"Allan learns the circuit very quickly!" said team manager Ange Pasquali. "He has never been here before in any kind of car and did a very good job. He went through the first session prioritising things in his head and then really got the job done. It was a very constructive session for him and he has a better idea about what he has to do for the rest of the weekend. We have a good overall picture considering that we have never been here before."

McNish's time was set on low fuel with fresh tyres but team mate Mika Salo's low fuel run was spoiled when another car spun in front of him. Then he had more traffic problems on his second lap. But as chief designer Gustav Brunner said: "Friday is only for the show. Tomorrow is when it matters."

Allan said: "We got the car set-up much more quickly and I was very satisfied with my performance although I didn't know I'd done the time until I got back to the pits. Then towards the end of the session I was pushing a little bit too hard and had a quick trip across the grass. This looks good but not everyone ran new tyres and it will still be hard to qualify top 10 tomorrow."
Mika commented: "I stopped early in the first session because I wanted to change the gear ratios and there was also a small problem with the clutch. That returned in the second session which lost me a bit of time."

David Coulthard is hoping that fastest time on the opening day is a sign of better things to come for West McLaren Mercedes. The Scot's 1m15.075s best lap put him 0.27s clear of Juan Pablo Montoya in the first of the BMW Williams Allan's fine performance (1m15.450s) managed to split Frank Williams' cars with Ralf Schumacher a couple of hundredths of a second further behind as cars on Michelin tyres claimed the top four positions.

Michael Schumacher was fifth fastest on his debut in Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's new F2002 chassis while Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren Mercedes and the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello were the only other drivers to beat 1m16s. Jacques Villeneuve's BAR Honda and the Jaguar of Pedro de la Rosa completed the top 10.