Michael Schumacher on top again

Published on 18 April 2003 by Huub Rothengatter

Reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher seems ready for the offense. His time was by far the fastest and this will make tomorrow's qualifying interesting until he has set his time at the end. He recorded a 1.20.628 and showed that the pole sitter will only be known when he has passed the finish line, Rubens Barrichello came second. Ferrari seem to be on course, followed by the BMW Williams duo Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya. Mark Webber set a good time again, he positioned himself on 5th. Both BAR drivers had a good day; Button (6th) and Villeneuve (7th) managed to keep the McLarens of Raikkonen and Coulthard behind them.

Jenson Button managed to set a faster time than his team mate Villeneuve yet again

Jos Verstappen finished on 19th with a time of 1.24.990, which is more than 4 seconds slower than the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. Again he was faster than Justin Wilson and faster than this morning's practice time. However the gap with the rest of the field is at least 2 seconds. Both Firman in his Jordan and Da Matta in his Toyota made obvious errors in their flying lap. If they had not made those the (disappointing) Jarno Trulli would have been on position 18, almost 2 seconds faster than Jos.