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Journalism of Courage
Four-time World champion Michael Schumacher performed the best on a drying track to post the fastest time in today’s practice for the San Marino Grand Prix ahead of the qualifying sessions.
Overnight rains had again soaked the autodromo track but early morning sunshine and the speeding cars dried the surface before the afternoon trials, although track temperatures were still on the cool side at 16 degrees celsius at the start.
Schumacher, whose Ferrari led both of yesterday’s rainy sessions, was timed in 1min 23.046sec on the 4.933km circuit, more than 12 seconds faster than yesterday’s best.
McLaren-Mercedes driver David Coulthard, who filled pole position in this race last year, was second in today’s practice session after clocking 1:23.550 and Schumacher’s teammate Rubens Barrichello was third in 1:23.675.
Both Ferrari drivers are using the new F2002 cars which only Schumacher drove in the last race in Brazil, where he took it to victory. Nick Heidfeld in a Sauber-Petronas was fourth in 1:23.95.
After having problems in yesterday’s wet conditions when they both slid off the track, Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Monoya did better today.
