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GP - 2nd Friday Practice Final Order: Michael Schumacher ahead of Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello. David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli make the top 6. 59 min: Jenson Button moves into 5th place with a time of 1:39.111. Villeneuve spins on the track and stops. Yellow flags. 59 min: Pedro de la Rosa improves to 7th place with a time of 1:39.547. Almost everyone is on track. 58 min: Alexander Wurz finally improves his time and moves into 19th position. 57 min: Michael Schumacher returns to the track on his final run of the day and so does Villeneuve and Irvine. 55 min: 5 minutes remaining and there has not been any improvements in the last 5 minutes. 54 min: Only Hakkinen and Barrichello are under a second slower than Michael Schumacher. The rest of the top 6 are over a second slower. 52 min: Alexander Wurz has yet to set a competitive time. He is currently in last place. 50 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli, Frentzen, Villeneuve, Zonta, Irvine and R Schumacher. 49 min: Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello all go out on the track but fail to improve. 47 min: Jacques Villeneuve moves into 7th position with a time of 1:39.669. Honda powered cars are 5th to 8th right behind the top 2 teams! 45 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli, Frentzen, Zonta, Irvine, R Schumacher, and Diniz. 43 min: Not much action on the track. Pedro de la Rosa improves to 13th place with a time of 1:40.820. 41 min: Coulthard goes out on the track but also fails to improve. Alesi slows down with a problem. 39 min: Both Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen go out on the track but fail to improve. 37 min: Jarno Trulli improves his time to 1:39.261 but remains in 5th position. 35 min: Ricardo Zonta moves into 7th place with a time on 1:39.887. 34 min: Pedro Diniz moves into 9th position with a time of 1:40.516. 32 min: Jarno Trulli moves into the top 5 with a time of 1:39.504 in 5th position. That is still 1.776 seconds slower than Michael Schumacher's fastest lap! 30 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Barrichello, Coulthard, Frentzen, Irvine, R Schumacher, Fisichella, Button and Herbert. 27 min: Rubens Barrichello moves to 3rd place with a time of 1:38.537. 0.809 seconds behind Michael Schumacher. 25 min: David Coulthard improves his time to 1:39.010 but is still in 3rd place. The gaps between the top 4 is huge - M Schumacher - Hakkinen (0.6s), Coulthard is over a second off the pace, Frentzen is almost 2 seconds of the pace ! 23 min: Gaston Mazzacane suffers yet another problem and stops on the track! 21 min: Jenson Button moves into the top 10 with a time of 1:40.739 in 9th place. Alexander Wurz is still in last position. 20 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, Irvine, R Schumacher, Fisichella, Herbert and Villeneuve. 19 min: Eddie Irvine moves up into 6th position and a time of 1:40.014. 17 min: Michael Schumacher improves yet again with a time of 1:37.728. He is over half a second faster than Mika Hakkinen. 15 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, R Schumacher, Irvine, Fisichella, Herbert and Villeneuve. 14 min: Johnny Herbert moves into 9th position while Fisichella improves in 8th. 12 min: Jacques Villeneuve improves to 12th over 3 seconds off the pace! 10 min: Coulthard retakes third spot from Frentzen but is still over a second slower than Michael Schumacher. 9 min: Mika Hakkinen improves but remains in 2nd place 0.34 seconds behind Michael Schumacher. Frentzen moves into 3rd place! 8 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, R Schumacher, Irvine, Fisichella, Verstappen and Button. 7 min: Frentzen improves to 4th with a time of 1:39.965. 6 min: Michael Schumacher improves and is the first to go under the 1:38 mark with a time of 1:37.999. Villeneuve goes out on the track 5 min: Ricardo Zonta moves into 12th from 16th while Frentzen moves up to 5th. 4 min: Jarno Trulli is the first to improve but still in 9th place. Jos Verstappen moves into the top 10. 3 min: More drivers go out on the track including the 2 Schumacher's and Mika Salo. 1 min: Session underway and Ricardo Zonta is the first to go out followed by Trulli, Button and the two McLaren's Michael Schumacher was 0.419 seconds faster than Hakkinen in the first session. He is trying to win the championship here in Japan. Session starts in 2 minutes. Session starting in 5 minutes. Weather conditions: Partly cloudy with a temperature of 24 degrees. |