Lots of rain marked the morning free ...

Published on 03 May 1996 by Verstappen Info Page

Lots of rain marked the morning free practice session at the Grand Prix of San Marino at Imola. Schumacher was fastest, followed by Hill and Berger. Jos drove only one incomplete lap so he didn't set a time. He was saving the engine for the afternoon free practice.

In the afternoon session Schumacher was again unbeatable and ended first, though he spun later on in the session, as did his teammate Eddie Irvine, causing the session to be temporarily stopped by a red flag. Jos had just managed the fourth time at that moment. Later on in the session Jos dropped back to a twelfth position.

The Arrows still has the problem of a lot of understeer, preventing the car from going faster when pushed. If you cure this problem, the car will get worse in other areas says Jos. What Jos wants is the car to get rid of the understeer while retaining traction. This can only be done with serious testing. Ricardo Rosset who is now using the spare car is its race car had the same problems as Jos, even causing him to spin off the track at the end of the session, though he got back on the track safely. One other reason that the Arrows didn't go any faster towards the end of the session is that other teams all started using new sets of tyres, and the Arrows team didn't.

See San Marino Grand Prix results for the test times.