Michael Schumacher took his first pole of the 2000 season ahead of Mika Hakkinen the qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver took pole with a 1.20.974 ahead of Hakkinen’s 1.21.052.

The session was tightly faught, with windy conditions creating handling problems for the drivers. Benson and Hedges Jordan Mugen-Honda drivers Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualified seventh (Trulli) and eighth (Frentzen) behind the Ferrari’s, the McLaren’s, Ralf Schumacher’s Williams and Jaques Villeneuve’s BAR. “Seventh and eighth is not brilliant,” said Eddie Jordan, “but certainly not a bad result for Jordan here in Barcelona – it is a track we have never been very strong at. The aim now is to finish tomorrow’s race with both cars in the points.”

Commenting on the session, Jarno Trulli said, “The windy conditions made it difficult to put three good sector times together; one minute there was no wind, then a big gust and the next minute a gust from the other direction! But I had no problems in the session and the car felt very good, so I would like to thank my mechanics and engineers for this. I think seventh is a good result, especially since it was a tough fight today. I am confident for the race as I have always raced well in Barcelona, but it will no doubt be very a competitive contest.”

Frentzen added, “Unfortunately I was not able to squeeze those extra tenths out of the car today. I went out early in order to avoid high track temperatures, but in the end the weather and track cooled towards the end of the session, so I lost out.”

The spare car in tomorrow’s race will be prepared for Jarno Trulli, following Jordan’s policy of having the spare car ready for the driver who qualified higher.

Jordan