Irvine fastest with Barrichello second

THE large Irish contingent in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix got the great treat of an Irish one two with Eddie Irvine being fastest overall after the first day of practice yesterday and Rubens Barrichello was only a whisker behind in the runner up slot in a Jordan.

Martin Brundle, struggling to retain his seat at Jordan, was well off his team leader's pace in 15th place.

Irvine, benefited from his first weekend back in Dalkey in two months and from 60 laps testing earlier in the week, was on the pace from early in the afternoon session: "It is good to be first for a change," he said. "It is a nice feeling but, being realistic, I don't think I can maintain pole position in the official session."

Unlike Michael Schumacher, Irvine went onto his second set of tyres during the session: "Until I fitted the new set I was struggling with the car which has turn in oversteer and mid corner understeer. Certainly the two days testing at Mugello helped a lot," said Irvine, who has done virtually no testing all year.

"I understand the car a lot better now. There are two very high speed corners at Mugello and I was able to take them with confidence and almost as quickly as Michael. The car is better but still hard to set up for a corner."

Irvine finished fifth last year in a Jordan and hopes to improve on that tomorrow, though Ferrari were quick to point out who is their number one. "I am happy that Eddie is quickest," said manager Jean Todt, "but Friday's times need careful study as not everyone runs the same configuration and Irvine had new tyres at the end. As for Michael he was lapping in the same times as the Williams so I think it will be very close tomorrow."

Irvine and his former teammate Rubens Barrichello were the only men to dip below one minute 24.4 seconds, Barrichello just three hundredths of a second slower. Eddie Jordan was pleased with the new pace which is partially due to the long main straight where the Peugeot's high revving V10 comes into its own.

"Rubens did a very good job," said Jordan. "We put on a new set of tyres to see how the car felt and they certainly did help. But these days Friday don't mean so much any more so I think we will have to make some improvements to keep the same position in qualifying," said Jordan.

Damon Hill and Schumacher were fourth and fifth yesterday, working on a good race set up and both are likely to be stronger today.

Brundle was over two seconds behind his team mate though he did not use new tyres.

Speaking of Brundle's future and whether he will follow Tierry Boutsen and Ivan Capelli and quit mid season, Jordan said: "I won't put pressure on Martin. He will know himself if it is time". Asked whether he would wait until Silverston - three races away - to make any changes if there is no improvement he added: "That's a long way away. We couldn't wait that long."

So, this may be Brundle's swan song and tomorrow will be vital. A study of recent telemetry readouts shows that Brundle is braking later than Barrichello and sometimes he can get out of the corners quicker but often a good lap is spoiled by losing half a second as the car gets crossed up and has to be straightened out.

Over 12 laps he can attain high top speeds in the speed traps, but inability to put a complete perfect lap together means poor qualifying and a lot of work to do in the race. Brundle has finished only one race and Jordan was certainly not pleased with his crash at Monaco.