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09-jun-2001
Saturday Morning Practice - Canadian Grand Prix 2001 Season The second day of practice got off to a busy start for Benson and Hedges Jordan Grand Prix as the team prepared for a change of drivers.
Following his accident during practice yesterday, Heinz-Harald Frentzen has withdrawn from the remainder of the weekend, test and reserve driver, Ricardo Zonta, taking his place. Zonta was 15th fastest this morning, six places behind Jarno Trulli.
Frentzen's accident came only two weeks after a heavy crash during the Monaco Grand Prix. Frentzen is returning home to Monaco for tests and an investigation into the dizziness and headaches he is experiencing.
Despite having completed many miles of testing for Jordan-Honda, Zonta's nomination meant the Brazilian had much work to do during the two 45-minute sessions this morning as he prepared for this afternoon's qualifying as well as tomorrow's race. Zonta spun during both sessions, the second
incident ending his practice with 27 minutes remaining.
'In many ways this is tougher than competing in your debut Grand Prix,' said Zonta. 'But I must say it's good to be getting into the car to race again, even if it is a big surprise. Of course, I have lost Friday's work, which is important when it comes to setting up and understanding the car for the race. I concentrated on getting confident with this track again and trying to relax as much as I can. We had some problems with the front of the car to start with but then we found a good direction to go with the set-up. I had an incident with Bernoldi he was going slowly and I don't think he saw me when I tried to go inside and that damaged the nose of my car. Later, when I put on new tyres, I made a mistake and spun. This cost me valuable track time which I could have used to fine-tune the car for qualifying.'
While Zonta focussed on qualifying, the aim being to get a good grid position and worry about the race set-up later, Trulli found time to follow both courses of action.
'I had to spend some time this morning with the car in race configuration to make sure the brakes worked,' said Trulli. 'After that, we worked a little bit on the car's balance. We had a small problem with the clutch but, otherwise, everything was okay. As usual, qualifying is going to be very close; it's going to be tough.'
Michael Schumacher was quickest, the Ferrari driver lapping faster than yesterday's times as the track improved. David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen were second and third for McLaren, Hakkinen going straight on at the hairpin when the brakes locked during his last flying lap. Rubens Barrichello, fourth fastest, had to park his Ferrari by the side of the track with a technical problem 21 minutes from the end of practice.
You can bet on Jordan -- and other teams -- through Jordan's official e-betting partner, Eurobet. If you are a UK resident, go to www.eurobet.co.uk. If not, place your bets through Eurobet's international site, www.eurobet.com.
Jordan Grand Prix
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