Trulli surprisingly fastest; Jos aborts lap

Published on 26 September 2003 by Huub Rothengatter

Jarno Trulli is the last one out in tomorrow's qualifying session in preparation for the USGP. Today he had the fastest time in prequalifying; 1.09.566. Remarkable was that there were only 3 cars with Bridgestone tyres in the top 10, Michael Schumacher on a disappointing 8th position. Mark Webber however did an excellent job in his Jaguar, he ended up on 3rd.

Today's qualification session started dry but when the first ten drivers had set their time the rain started to fall. It meant the other ten drivers had to prove themselves. In the early stages of rainfall Fisichella, Da Matta and Frentzen could only just manage on their dry weather tyres. The next one out, Olivier Panis, had a really tough time on his dry weather tyres in the wet and the lap times went up. Unfortunately Jos Verstappen had to abort his attempt at the end of his outlap and we will never know what position he would have been on with his reputation as a good rain driver. He has to go out first in tomorrow's qualifying session.

A very disappointed Jos Verstappen told us: "The car was misfiring, it had a problem with the ignition. I am far from happy because this morning in the rain it went quite well. This is the second consecutive race I am unable to qualify. The weather is very unpredictable here, so let's hope it will be the same as today: dry start and wet finish."