Giancarlo Fisichella had a trouble free first day at Silverstone, but was very disappointed to qualify down in 16th place this afternoon.

Ralph Firman had a more fraught time with various mechanical bothers hampering his progress in the morning, on his way to a 17th place finish in the afternoon.

Michael Schumacher proved that running first on the track is not always a disadvantage as he set a time that was never beaten by his 19 challengers. Rubens Barrichello in the other Ferrari looked like coming close, but he was caught out by a sudden drizzle and spun off at Becketts, getting stuck in the gravel. He will start tomorrow afternoon’s session second, as Justin Wilson coasted to a halt in his Minardi, also failing to post a time.

Behind the Ferraris came the BMW-Williams duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. With McLaren-Mercedes seemingly off the pace, this allowed the Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli to record fourth and fifth fastest times. The shock element today was provided by Olivier Panis. The Toyota man provided the French meat in the Renault sandwich with fifth quickest time.

TESTING
Giancarlo Fisichella 6th      1:22.864 26 laps
Ralph Firman  7th   1:24.006 30 laps

FREE PRACTICE
Giancarlo Fisichella 16th  1:22.028 14 laps
Ralph Firman  17th   1:22.135 18 laps

QUALIFYING

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA 16th    1:21.500  
CHASSIS NUMBER EJ13-04
“It’s disappointing not to be moving up any higher than this.  Our lack of pace is frustrating.”

RALPH FIRMAN 17th    1:22.335 
CHASSIS NUMBER EJ13-03
“I’m a bit frustrated with my lap time.  I was quicker in the morning with more fuel so obviously I was hoping to have had a better lap.  I had lots of oversteer.  We’ll try and address it tomorrow and do the best we can.”

GARY ANDERSON
DIRECTOR OF RACE AND TEST ENGINEERING
“This morning we had a gearbox pump oil leak on Ralph’s car and had to change the engine because some wiring was damaged.  He was in the t-car for the rest of the session and had a fuel pressure problem at the end which turned out to be an internal tank problem.  Giancarlo had no real dramas and we got through our tyre evaluation work.  As far as qualifying goes, it’s the same as normal.  We have to be quicker and there’s a lot to do.”

The spare car (chassis EJ13-02) is set up for Ralph Firman.