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GP - 1st Friday Practice Session
Final Order - Top 10: Mika Hakkinen ahead of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. Kimi Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Enrique Bernoldi, Olivier Panis, Jos Verstappen and Nick Heidfeld make the top 10. 60 min: Session over as Coulthard improves but remains in 2nd place. 59 min: Rubens Barrichello moves into 2nd still in the 1:21's 58 min: Final 2 minutes of the session as Hakkinen goes fastest with a time of 1:11.751 - Stunning! 57 min: Luciano Burti has now covered 24 laps! 56 min: Hakkinen on a very fast lap. Raikkonen moves to 4th while Bernoldi is in 6th! 55 min: Jacques Villeneuve spins but recovers. 54 min: Olivier Panis improves his time but remains in 5th. Verstappen is in 6th place! 53 min: David Coulthard goes fastest with a time of 1:12.291. Michael Schumacher had an off but recovered. 52 min: Top 10 - Hakkinen, Coulthard, R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Panis, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Bernoldi, Heidfeld and Trulli. 51 min: Both McLaren drivers are currently on the track. Both have covered 10 laps each. 50 min: 10 minutes to go and the times are fairly static while the drivers are testing different configurations. 49 min: Luciano Burti in the Prost has covered the most number of laps so far with 20. 48 min: Jean Alesi also spins but recovers. He is in 16th place. 47 min: The top 10 have set times that are faster than last year's time here. 46 min: Ralf spins but recovers. Frentzen's car has a hydraulic problem. 45 min: Ralf Schumacher improves to 3rd with a time of 1:12.668. Kimi Raikkonen moves into 7th place. 44 min: Top 10 - Hakkinen, Coulthard, M Schumacher, Panis, Barrichello, Heidfeld, Trulli, Montoya, R Schumacher and Verstappen. 43 min: The top 8 are separated by under a second. This is promising if it stays this way! 42 min: The temperature has actually dropped back to 17 degrees!. Barrichello improves to 5th. 41 min: Only Frentzen has yet to set a time as he appears to be having some kind of mechanical trouble. Barrichello moves into 9th. 40 min: Jos Verstappen improves to 9th with a time of 1:13.770. 39 min: The top 3 drivers are in the 1:12's with the top 10 in the 1:13's. Barrichello on track. 38 min: Once again it looks like Benetton are mixing it with Minardi at the back. 37 min: The times are dropping fast!. Mika Hakkinen improves to 1:12.373! 36 min: Panis takes 3rd in the BAR but Michael Schumacher recovers it. 35 min: Top 10 - Hakkinen, Coulthard, M Schumacher, Panis, Trulli, R Schumacher, Montoya, Heidfeld, Bernoldi and Villeneuve. 34 min: Michael Schumacher moves into 3rd with a time of 1:13.122. 33 min: Mika Hakkinen goes first with a time of 1:12.474 - What flu ? 32 min: Michael Schumacher is back in 10th place!. 31 min: Mika Hakkinen moves into 2nd with a time of 1:13.314. 30 min: David Coulthard jumps straight into 1st place with a time of 1:12.747! 29 min: Mika Hakkinen slow on his first lap. 28 min: Mika Hakkinen also on track as Ralf Schumacher improves but stays in 2nd. 27 min: Jacques Villeneuve moves to 4th but gets moved back to 5th by his team-mate Panis. 26 min: Top speed again by Verstappen, a 304 km/H 25 min: Jarno Trulli moves into 1st with a time of 1:13.315 already faster than the best time set here in the 1st Friday practice last year. Rubens Barrichello on the track. 24 min: Top 10 - R Schumacher, Heidfeld, Irvine, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Montoya, de la Rosa, Bernoldi, Alesi and Panis. 23 min: Ralf Schumacher goes first with a time of 1:13.605. Jos Verstappen moves into 5th and the best top speed of 302 km/H 22 min: Nick Heidfeld goes fastest with a time of 1:13.746. 21 min: Nick Heidfeld moves into second place with a time of 1:14.968. 20 min: Jos Verstappen goes off but recovers. Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis are on track. 19 min: Except for Montoya, none of the top teams have set a time yet. 18 min: Montoya tries too hard and goes off but manages to recover. 17 min: Montoya's top speed was 299 km/H as he improves to 3rd with a time of 1:15.215. 16 min: Montoya goes 4th with a time of 1:15.350. 15 min: Top 6 - Irvine, Raikkonen, Alonso, de la Rosa, Marques and Burti. 14 min: Fernando Alonso improves with a time of 1:15.945. Montoya is on the track. 13 min: Luciano Burti sets a very slow time of 1:20.819 while Eddie Irvine improves to 1:14.536. 12 min: Luciano Burti in his second appearance at a GP event for Prost goes out. Irvine sets a time of 1:15.075. 10 min: Eddie Irvine is on the track as well. Alonso sets a time of 1:17.855. 8 min: Kimi Raikkonen sets a time of 1:15.041 as Fernando Alonso goes out on his first flying lap. 7 min: Kimi Raikkonen is the first to go for a timed lap. Raikkonen has been doing very well compared to his team-mate Heidfeld despite not having any Formula 1 experience. 5 min: No one has set a time yet. 3 min: Both Ferrari's have yet to go out on the track as Mika Hakkinen goes out on his installation lap. 2 min: Several cars are back in the pits while others continue to leave the pits. This track is one of the shortest on the calendar with lap times in the low 1:10's. 1 min: Session underway with a lot of cars streaming out of the pit lane for their installation lap. Current temperature is 21 degrees with partly cloudy skies. There is a chance of rain but it is expected to stay dry for the 2 practice sessions today. This could change very quickly though. Session stating in 2 minutes. The Williams BMW team who certainly have a power advantage on this track could dominate however last year they only managed to qualify in 18th and 19th places and it is not known how the Michelin tyres will perform. Session stating in 5 minutes. Mika Hakkinen is suffering from the flu and has admitted that it will be very difficult for him to perform at his best. He insisted though that he doesn't believe that his championship chances have gone away after his retirement in Spain. Session stating in 10 minutes. It is going to be interesting to see how the top 3 teams will shape on this track. Power is important here but a good balance to compensate for the slow corners will be needed. Ferrari shipped some aerodynamic pieces yesterday after testing them at Fiorano. Session stating in 15 minutes. Session starting at 11:00 AM local time. That is 9:00 AM GMT, click here for the local time in Austria now.
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