David Coulthard proved he is still on form ahead of Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix by finishing with the fastest time in this morning's practice sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The Scot, with a time of one minute 20.107 seconds, was 0.5 seconds faster than Eddie Irvine for Jaguar Racing whose finish surprised everyone. Jaguar Racing have yet to pick up points this season but with new driver Pedro de la Rosa on board for this weekend's round of the championship, Irvine may feel he has something to prove.
Third-fastest was Rubens Barichello in the Ferrari while BAR's Olivier Panis was fourth. Michael Schumacher, joint-championship leader along with Coulthard, was fifth fastest in the other Ferrari and Mika Hakkinen was sixth in the other McLaren. Italian Grand Prix champion Ralf Schumacher was eighth fastest. The Jordan cars of Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished 10th and 14th respectively.
However, despite his impressive time today, Irvine is not convinced his team are yet reaching the standards of their more successful opponents. "I wouldn't want anybody to read too much into our times today," he said. "I don't think we will be second in qualifying, but things have certainly improved at an operational level. We are still around the 12th or 13th mark and are working to improve, but hopefully we are heading in the right direction. If some of the teams ahead of us have a problem then maybe we can get among the points here, but we will have to see."
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
