Friday First Free Practice

Jacques Villeneuve lost control of his BAR-Honda and crashed 27 minutes into the opening session of Friday's opening free practice session for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, a collision that caused the action to be red-flagged and halted.

The Canadian veered left and failed to stop his car sliding into a wall at the Spoon Curve where bodywork parts flew in all directions. The rear wing and the entire nose section parted company with the main body of the vehicle, but all four wheels remained tethered to the chassis although they were flying around in seeming limbo.

There was no immediate reason given for the accident or for teammate Olivier Panis pulling up soon afterwards a little further around the circuit. Five-times World Champion Michael Schumacher, in his Ferrari, was first on the scene and had to steer his car through the wreckage strewn across the circuit.

Japanese Takuma Sato, in a Jordan-Honda, was fastest early on the session to the delight of the home crowd inside the Suzuka circuit where thousands of Japanese fans basked in the morning sunshine. More than 10,000 Toyota staff, it was reported, were being transported into the circuit each day and the Sato fan club had their own grandstand.

But Sato did not stay fastest for long and when the session resumed after a 10-minutes delay he was soon relegated to a more familiar position in the lower half of the order as the usual suspects began to exercise control over the leading positions.

Schumacher was soon fastest in his Ferrari, but his teammate Rubens Barrichello found the going more difficult and he had one unscheduled off-track excursion early in the second half of the morning hour, but without any damage to car or driver.

By the end of the session, the champion was two-tenths of a second clear of Barrichello in second ahead of Briton David Coulthard, in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, and his teammate Finn Kimi Raikkonen. Juan Pablo Montoya was fifth for Williams-BMW ahead of his teammate Ralf Schumacher.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:36.109 218.040 km/h 16 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:36.348 + 0.239 14 3. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:36.760 + 0.651 8 4. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:37.268 + 1.159 14 5. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:37.316 + 1.207 12 6. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:37.614 + 1.505 16 7. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:38.425 + 2.316 11 8. Trulli Renault (M) 1:38.426 + 2.317 16 9. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:38.630 + 2.521 15 10. Button Renault (M) 1:38.640 + 2.531 14 11. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:38.698 + 2.589 16 12. Salo Toyota (M) 1:38.801 + 2.692 17 13. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:38.912 + 2.803 22 14. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:39.054 + 2.945 6 15. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:39.208 + 3.099 16 16. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:39.278 + 3.169 18 17. McNish Toyota (M) 1:39.364 + 3.255 17 18. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:40.710 + 4.601 18 19. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:40.967 + 4.858 4 20. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:41.596 + 5.487 19 All Timing Unofficial