02/07/2004

Grand Prix of France - Free Practice Report

The opening day of the French Grand Prix meeting at Magny Cours produced a mix of changeable conditions in which Cristiano da Matta topped the second session of free practice and ended up second quickest overall on the day.

Da Matta's best lap 1m15.518s was just 0.03s slower than the fastest time of the first session set by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Rubens Barrichello in the narrow window before heavy rain fell.

Da Matta said: "Obviously it's great to finish a session on top of the time sheets but today was a bit of a lottery and it all depended on when you managed to get your lap in and how the conditions changed. The worst thing about it of course is that Friday is our chance to work on set-up and tyre comparison and the variable weather makes that very difficult."

The F1 rules demand that teams must make their final tyre selections for qualifying and race by 9am on Saturday morning but because both of today's sessions were rain-afflicted the FIA has announced that this decision can be deferred until 12.00 noon on Saturday. In other words the teams will now have the benefit of Saturday's free practice before they have to make up their minds.

Olivier Panis finished the session in 11th place with a lap in 1m17.303 and the Frenchman explained: "The changing conditions make it very difficult to make conclusive judgements and that's the principal reason why I did not go out with a new set of tyres to set quick times. Overall though the car feels good and I hope that we can have a competitive weekend."

Panasonic Toyota Racing's third driver Ricardo Zonta (1m17.735s) was 15th quickest and said: "The last time I was here was back in 2000 since when the final sector of the lap has changed. I spent some of the first session relearning that and then had a bit of a moment at Turn 3 in the second session. I was pushing a bit too hard hit a patch of standing water that I didn't see and went straight on into the gravel trap thankfully without any damage."

Behind Barrichello and Da Matta Michael Schumacher set the third quickest time of the day (1m15.713s) in the second Ferrari. Mild Seven Renault F1 Team driver Jarno Trulli was fourth quickest (1m16.206s) followed by Lucky Strike BAR Honda drivers Anthony Davidson (1m16.231s) and Jenson Button (1m16.397s).