Schumacher fastestJos 11th

Published on 31 August 2001 by Thorsten Hendriks

Underneath a cloudy sky the first free practice has finished in Spa Francorchamps. In a temperatue of 14 degrees plenty of drivers were still looking for grip. Even the Ferraris had problems with understeer at the beginning of the session. However M. Schumacher finished fastest. His team mate Rubens Barrichello ended up 0.8 seconds behind him because Jarno Trulli squeezed himself between them.

Jos positioned himself on a comfortable 11th place, but this doesn't say much about the rest of the weekend, at least the beginning is good. It means a lot for the many Dutch (and Belgian) fans who are present to support Jos.

Some gravel pits have been replaced with speed reducing parts of tarmac. Drivers might be able to return onto the track after they have gone off. Coulthard and Villeneuve however both went off track at Fagnes which is still a gravel pit. This happened at a very early stage in the session that they were not able to drive a fast time afterwards.