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2001 Belgian Grand Prix 
First Friday Practice Session  

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First Friday Practice Session Report - Results

Michael Schumacher has dominated the 1st Friday practice setting a time that was over 0.7 seconds faster than Jarno Trulli in second place. Rubens Barrichello was 3rd  not too far behind. Mika Hakkinen was 4th ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Jean Alesi.

The session started relatively slowly but following the initial installation laps, Michael Schumacher was the first to set a time and his first was already 2 seconds faster than the best time set during the 1st Friday practice last year. Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets for a short time but Michael Schumacher soon replied by setting a time that was un-touchable.

Interesting results from a few other drivers with Trulli right on the pace in the Jordan, Alesi showing better results in 6th and Fisichella impressive in 10th in the Benetton. 
Ferrari's direct rivals were off the pace with Hakkinen in 4th over 1.5 seconds behind, Ralf Schumacher in 5th over 2 seconds behind and Montoya in 9th over 4 seconds behind. David Coulthard had a spin on his first flying lap and hit the wall.

Jacques Villeneuve also spun off the track while Luciano Burti went on the grass and seems to have damaged his car going back to the pits and never appearing on the track again. 

Michael Schumacher covered the most number of laps with 22 followed by Rubens Barrichello with 18. Coulthard and Burti only did installation laps while Villeneuve only managed 4 laps. All other drivers covered between 8 and 17 laps.

The top 3 were covered by a second, the top 4 by 2 seconds, the top 7 by 3 seconds and the top 8 by 4 seconds. In fact there is 4.288 seconds separating Michael Schumacher in 1st and Giancarlo Fisichella in 10. This will certainly drop over the next few sessions as the drivers find the perfect set-ups for their cars. The gap is also exaggerated due to the lengthy track.

The weather was cloudy and the air temperature 16 degrees. 

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