Trulli Delighted with 'Productive' Day

Jordan's Jarno Trulli showed on Friday he is determined to repeat his qualifying performance from last year by setting the second quickest time in today's practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Italian driver, who will drive for the Benetton team next year after switching seats with compatriot Giancarlo Fisichella, qualified in second place last season with the Jordan, and at the slippery Spa circuit he put another promising performance today, finishing only behind World Champion Michael Schumacher.

"It's been a productive day," said Trulli. "The car seems pretty good and I'm optimistic for tomorrow that we can get a result. The weather will be critical because I would prefer it to be one way or the other; not like today where the rain comes and goes just enough to make the track wet, and then it begins to dry out.

"When it was wet, I had some brake problems. I had too much brake balance on the rear and I spun twice."

Frenchman Jean Alesi was happy with his day's work despite setting the ninth quickest time more than two seconds behind Trulli, the Frenchman driving the EJ11 for the first time in the wet.

"Today was important for me," said Alesi. "This was the first time I was able to drive the car in wet conditions. I'm really happy with what we learned today and now we have to work on getting the best set-up for qualifying and the race."