Barrichello proves his worth to Ferrari

FORMULA ONE: Rubens Barrichello, buoyed by the extension of his Ferrari contract until the end of the 2004 season, eclipsed team-mate Michael Schumacher at the A1-Ring yesterday to take the fastest time of the day in free practice for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

Barrichello again proved yesterday he is edging closer to his title-defending team-mate by clocking the fastest time of the day. The Brazilian denied the performance was due to a confidence boost from the new deal.

"This sort of thing doesn't have much effect actually," he said. "It may look from the outside that you're under pressure when you don't have a contract, but you just have to perform calmly, just stay quiet and do your job."

This weekend's race in Austria, though, could represent Barrichello's best chance of taking a second career GP win, almost two years after his maiden victory at Hockenheim in 2000. Schumacher has never won in Austria and, aside from a second place to David Coulthard, has had a torrid time around the short but exceedingly quick mountain circuit.

Barrichello began his Austrian form by finishing 14th in 1996 and then failed to finish in his next two outings. In the last two years though he has scored two third-place finishes and would have taken second last year but was forced to cede that place to Schumacher when Ferrari instituted team orders to keep Schumacher ahead of Coulthard in the championship battle. It was an order that rankled with the Brazilian, who pointedly moved across only yards from the chequered flag.

Yesterday, though, he laughed when it was suggested that with Schumacher in control of the title race perhaps he would be ordered to let Barrichello through to take the win. "I try not to read too much into the future," he said. Barrichello and Schumacher, however, are likely to have stiffer competition than in Barcelona two weeks ago, where Ferrari completely dominated.

Yesterday, after struggling on their Michelin tyres in the cold morning session, Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher edged to within six hundredths of a second of Barrichello's time.

"We've been working on the set-up of the car and on tyre evaluation. I think this is going to be a tough weekend but we hope we'll be a lot closer to Ferrari here," said the Colombian, who is still second in the drivers' championship.

After a difficult time in Spain two weeks ago when they were comprehensively outclassed by Bridgestone, the proof that Michelin has come to Austria with an improved product was delivered by Kimi Raikkonen, fourth yesterday and just a tenth outside Barrichello's time. Team-mate David Coulthard, who finished the day ninth, was, however, quick to point out that Friday times are suspect because of the variety of fuel loads being carried by teams.

One team that is all too aware of its level of competitiveness is Jordan. After a useful morning the team's Bridgestone tyres looked, for a while, like having a decided edge over the Michelins, with both Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato in the top 10. But in the afternoon, as the temperatures rose, the grip on the dusty track improved and the Michelins began to work more effectively so that the Irish team was again left looking at familiar slots in the lower teens.

"We were happy with this morning but then in the afternoon things got a little messy, with Giancarlo spinning off," said race team director Gary Anderson. "Everybody out there was spinning somewhere, as the track was very dusty. We were unlucky to spin and get stuck, which knocked us back a bit."

Fisichella, who only got half an hour's running in the afternoon session was left in 18th position, a result which the Italian said left him, rather appositely, with a mountain to climb before qualifying. Anderson was also concerned about Sato's performance, despite the Japanese climbing to 10th. "We made some set-up changes on Takuma's car in between the two sessions, which turned out to be not necessarily the right direction, so we had to revise it, losing us time in the afternoon."