Barcelona, day 2: Friesacher fastest

The Austrian lapped in 1m29.38s this morning, eclipsing Giorgio Pantano's quickest time from yesterday by 0.6secs. Rodrigo Sperafico was second fastest for Durango, a tenth off Friesacher's pace, while pre-season title favourite Tomas Enge was third fastest for Arden despite buzzing his engine.

Antonio Pizzonia (Petrobras) and Enrico Toccacelo (Coloni) were next up, ahead of Sebastien Bourdais who drove the Super Nova car today in place of Pantano. He then handed over to Tiago Monteiro in the afternoon.

"Both drivers [Bourdais and Monteiro] did a good job and a decision will be made this weekend on our final 2002 line up," said Super Nova boss David Sears.

Ricardo Mauricio kept up Red Bull's good day by setting the quickest time in the slower afternoon session, when he was two-tenths quicker than Arden's F3000 rookie Bjorn Wirdheim. The slower conditions of that session restricted them to eighth and 11th overall, however.

"Bjorn has done an exception job for us so far," said Arden boss Christian Horner. "These cars seem to be more suited to drivers coming out of F3 than the old ones were, but he's been very impressive."


Patrick Friesacher Red Bull 1m29.38s
Rodrigo Sperafico Durango 1m29.47s
Tomas Enge Arden 1m29.56s
Antonio Pizzonia Petrobras 1m29.62s
Enrico Toccacelo Coloni 1m29.84s
Sebastien Bourdais Super Nova 1m30.26s
Nicolas Kiesa PSM 1m30.38s
Ricardo Mauricio Red Bull 1m30.40s
Mario Haberfeld Astromega 1m30.47s
Ryan Briscoe Nordic 1m30.49s
Bjorn Wirdheim Arden 1m30.64s
Ricardo Sperafico Petrobras 1m30.89s
Zsolt Baumgartner Nordic 1m31.57s
Rob Nguyen Astromega 1m31.72s
Tony Schmidt PSM 1m32.23s
Tiago Monteiro Super Nova 1m32.28s