The weather wiped out the second practice session today leaving Heinz-Harald Frentzen fastest at Silverstone. Frentzen marked Jordan's 150th race by clocking the fastest time in the first practice session for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this morning. The German finished half-a-second ahead of the rest of the field when the hour-long session was abandoned due to rain with about 25 minutes left.
But when the drivers came out for the afternoon session it was soon cancelled when a Land Rover, which had gone to remove David Coulthard's stalled McClaren, got stuck in the sodden grass and couldn't be moved by marshalls. Race officials then decided the times from the morning session would stand.
Frentzen was followed by Eddie Irvine though there was more disappointment for his fellow Jaguar Racing driver Johnny Herbert who stopped on the Northamptonshire track early on. Herbert, who last week denied speculation that his place at the team was under threat, has struggled with reliability problems all season but could have done without today's latest setback. He wound up back in 21st spot.
Last year's winner David Coulthard was third fastest followed by McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen with Jarno Trulli fifth in the other Jordan. Jenson Button finished 11th fastest on his grand prix debut at Silverstone but Williams BMW team-mate Ralf Schumacher was last after his car stopped on the track.
Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, who leads the championship by 21 points, was way down in 20th spot although that was no indication about his likely competitiveness in Sunday's 60-lap race. The German had not completed a full lap before the rain came and grew in intensity, showing the short-sightedness of moving the race date from mid-July to April.
The drivers took the opportunity to test out their wet-weather tyres, but if conditions are repeated tomorrow then qualifying could become a lottery.
