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2001 Spanish Grand Prix 
First Friday Practice Session  

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Reports & Results from other sessions

First Friday Practice Session Report - Results

David Coulthard set the fastest time of the session ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. Ralf Schumacher was the best Michelin runner in 4th ahead of Mika Hakkinen and Olivier Panis.

While the order is a fairly usual one, it is the time set by David Coulthard that is stunning. On his first flying lap he set a time that is already faster than pole last year. Barrichello was over 0.4 seconds behind while Michael Schumacher was 0.6 seconds off the pace. Ralf Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen where just under 0.9 seconds off Coulthard's time. The rest of the field were 1.5 seconds or more off the pace!.

Whether this is an indication that McLaren have managed to overcome their problems or if they have a superior traction control system or that Coulthard is on fire remains to be seen over the next few sessions. It could be just a flying lap with less fuel however that is unlikely.

There were a few incidents during the session with Frentzen going off and ending up in the gravel while Barrichello and Montoya both visited the gravel but recovered. Disaster for BAR with both their cars suffering mechanical problems. Jarno Trulli also struggled with his car and only covered 5 laps!.

Pedro de la Rosa on his first appearance for Jaguar at a Grand Prix event was in 13th place just behind his team-mate Eddie Irvine while Luciano Burti driving for Prost for the first time was in 17th just behind his team-mate Jean Alesi.

Enrique Bernoldi covered the most number of laps with 23 followed by both Pedro de la Rosa and Fernando Alonso each with 21 laps. Jarno Trulli only managed 5 laps, Frentzen only 6, Irvine only 7 laps while both BAR drivers only did 9 laps. Most other drivers covered between 14 and 18 laps.

It will be interesting to see how further the times will drop today.

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