Saturday's Free Practise: Wurz?????

[EERO]

In his final race for Benetton, Alex Wurz topped the third session and finished third overall for the Saturday practise.

With next season's position at McLaren confirmed, perhaps he can settle down and drive. Certainly for the last few races, he has seemed to be on the ascendancy as Fisi's performance has declined. What's "Flavio-Flave" thinking now?
01. Coulthard McLaren 1:38.109
02. M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:38.203
03. Wurz Benetton 1:38.318
04. Hakkinen McLaren 1:38.348
05. Barrichello Ferrari 1:38.955
06. Herbert Jaguar 1:39.107
07. Irvine Jaguar 1:39.110
08. Button Williams 1:39.230
09. Villeneuve BAR 1:39.337
10. Trulli Jordan 1:39.382
11. R. Schumacher Williams 1:39.430
12. Zonta BAR 1:39.440
13. Heidfeld Prost 1:39.794
14. de La Rosa Arrows 1:39.798
15. Verstappen Arrows 1:39.812
16. Salo Sauber 1:39.839
17. Fisichella Benetton 1:39.849
18. Diniz Sauber 1:39.916
19. Alesi Prost 1:39.988
20. Frentzen Jordan 1:40.551
21. Gene Minardi 1:41.806
22. Mazzacane Minardi 1:42.370

[neutral]

Unfortunately if he hadnt left it to the end of the season, he may still have a permanent seat in Benneton. However, it is nice to see, what I thought was once the future of F1, back in some form. Good luck in quals Wurz.

[Ralf's Girl]

Strange, the way F1 drivers work, isn't it??? He does nothing for the whole season, then suddenly picks up and starts driving quickly in the last race!

Great qualifying for him too! Best of luck as McLaren's test driver next season, Alex. Or do I mean third driver...?

[Wiki]

Im glad he did so well since he seems like a nice guy and doesn't go *****ing about all the other drivers much - it must be soooo tough being the tallest guy in F1 when all the cars are so little.

[R]

Great performance by Alex today both in the free practice and the qualifying.

I think him going to McLaren to be test driver is a good career move - it's certainly made him quick this weekend! It must be a real moral booster to be chosen as test driver for one of the top two teams. And who knows? If Mika retires or DC moves on after next season - Alex could find himself in one of the two racing seats at McLaren for 2002. If that happens, then signing to be test driver for the team next year will be the wisest career move he's ever made.

[Carla O]

He sure is fast and has some potencial... let's wait and see...

[Ralf's Girl]

And even if it doesn't get him a McLaren seat, Wurz can still benefit from this. Look at how much Olivier Panis's stock has raised since he left F1. That can happen for Wurz too.

[Tris]

From this it would appear that Wurz, like Barrichello needs to be in the right mindset to be fast. I wonder what would have happened if Flav had put his eggs in the Wurz rather than the Fisichella basket!

[Ralf's Girl]

Yeah. Fisichella thought he could just relax and start cruising now, with his team-mate getting the sack and, of course, having totally thrashed him this season. But perhaps Flav is wondering why on earth he favoured Fisichella so much?

[EERO]

Fifth!!!!

Damn, it took him long enough to come out of the doldrums. I hope he can turn it into points tomorrow.

Fisico is meanwhile looking like he's suffering from the same bug Alex had earlier in the season: Uncompetitivitis.

[Toth]

Well, Wurz has all the funny gadgets on his car that Fisi used to have (apparantly Wurz said so himself), and all of a sudden Wurz is fast and Fisi is back where Wurz used to be!

[Tris]

I think that Fisichella has lost some of his edge after all the large accidents he was in mid to late season. I always rated Wurz over Fisichella but I knew that Flav was not giving Alex a fair crack...