Valencia, day 5: Frentzen crashes twice

Juan Pablo Montoya topped the timesheet, the Colombian setting a best time of 1m12.410s over the course of his 69 laps for Williams. This put him almost a second ahead of Pedro de la Rosa's Jaguar, which was enjoying its most competitive showing yet, but was still some way off the record time set by the new McLaren.

However, the main talking point was Frentzen's accidents, both on the entrance to the fast left-hander, Turn One. The first time the German somehow avoided the barriers, the second time he was less lucky, although multiple spins quickly took off the speed and there was only minimal damage to the front of the car.

This overshadowed the competitive pace the new car has been showing - Frentzen was fifth fastest, just a fraction behind Ralf Schumacher's Williams, and the quickest Bridgestone runner.

Jacques Villeneuve covered a mammoth 86 laps in the BAR and was a little over a tenth up on team-mate Olivier Panis. Alex Yoong had his most competitive outing so far, although his best lap of 1m15.353s illustrates the extent of the challenge facing Minardi this year.


Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m12.410s 69
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m13.229s 78
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW* M 1m13.377s 91
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m13.484s 69
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Arrows-Cosworth B 1m13.491s 20
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m13.577s 86
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda B 1m13.744s 66
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda* B 1m14.177s 81
Alex Yoong Minardi-Asiatech M 1m15.353s 38
Mark Webber Minardi-Asiatech* M 1m15.908s 30

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2001 car