Button clocks fastest lap in practice
24/07/2004 - 10:20:59Jenson Button gave a glimpse of what might have been as he clocked the fastest time in final practice for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim today.
Button has looked strong all weekend and once again showed well, although he stands virtually no chance of a maiden grand prix victory after a problem yesterday.
His BAR needed an engine change, incurring a 10-place grid penalty, and even if the Englishman repeats his form of this morning in qualifying, the highest he will line up tomorrow is 11th.
Button at least proved he has the speed to battle for points in the race with his lap of one minute 13.676 seconds, which came late in the session to deny Juan Pablo Montoya top spot.
Montoya was 0.300secs slower in his Williams while the McLaren pair of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard were on the pace throughout to claim third and fourth respectively.
World champion Michael Schumacher, who can clinch the constructors’ championship for Ferrari this weekend, was over three-quarters of a second off the pace in seventh after suffering a rare spin.
Fernando Alonso was quick out of the blocks to post an early fast time before Olivier Panis became the first driver this weekend to lap under 1min 15secs.
The lap times really began to fall as the session entered its final 25 minutes, with Raikkonen going clear at the top with an impressive effort.
McLaren have been revitalised in recent weeks by their new car and Coulthard finally put a strong lap together to go second.
The Scot suffered a torrid time yesterday, spinning twice and never threatening Raikkonen, but he lapped just a 10th of a second slower than the Finn this morning.
Schumacher tried hard to match Raikkonen’s pace and earned a trip to the gravel for his trouble, spinning backwards at turn six.
Montoya was able to respond to Raikkonen’s time and he dipped under the 1min 14secs mark for the first time to go fastest before Button’s late effort.
Schumacher set the pace in today’s first session, which was interrupted by several accidents.
The red flag came out twice after Jordan’s Giorgio Pantano and then Minardi’s Zsolt Baumgartner lost their front wing after hitting a bollard on the apex of turn one.
Marshalls needed time to clear debris and race organisers eventually decided to remove the troublesome bollard.
Those stoppages cut short the 45-minute session by 14 minutes but even so Takuma Sato could not make the end, with the BAR driver crashing into a wall.
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