Magny-Cours 27th June
Dramatic wind direction changes during Friday practice spoiled most of the teams' careful planning. The BAR team also suffered great problems with lack of grip and during the 2nd session Ricardo only managed to do 5 laps before he spun, ending up in the gravel trap at turn 8."The car was oversteering a lot in the morning and I was pushing it to the limit to try and improve my time. In the afternoon I pushed too hard and spun - my fault."
Friday 1st practice:
15th, 1:20.681 +2.430
Combined practice:
19th, 1:20.681 +2.769, 22 laps
Qualifying took place in horrible monsoon conditions. With just a few minutes left Ricardo had only been able to do one flying lap and with a time of 1:45.349 he was actually outside the 107% limit even if it is without significance in rain.
Then Ricardo went out and did a 1:42.228 to put him into 10th position in the grid, his best so far in Grand Prix racing and out-qualifying Villeneuve by 1.5 s in only his third attempt.
"The car was too low on my first run and aquaplaning a lot. We raised the ride height and it was better on my second run but not much. It was difficult to stay on the track. My qualifying lap was luckily quite clear - only Michael Schumacher was in front of me."
Saturday practice:
10th, 1:18.484 +1.252, 22 laps
Qualifying:
10th, 1:42.228 +3.787, 9 laps
Ricardo did a less successful start and he was passed by among others his team mate. He held 15th position for the first 6 laps, bettering to 14th when Diniz (Sauber) retired. On lap 16 he passed Zanardi (Williams) for 13th. On lap 20 the rain
started and two laps later Ricardo pitted while in 9th position. He rejoined 12th but a spin by Alesi on the next lap created a safety car situation with Ricardo in 10th position. After having followed the safety car for a considerable time the green flag finally came out on lap 36. Ricardo was soon passed by Irvine (Ferrari) and settled for 9th for a while. Later Irvine pitted and Ricardo had a lengthy fight with the Ferrari until finally being passed at lap 56. The safety car situation had saved a lot of the fuel and it wasn't until lap 61 that Ricardo came in for his second pit stop. He took thechance and gambled on dry weather tyres as the track was drying up, the only driver to do so. First it looked as the gamble had succeeded. By lap 66 Ricardo lapped 3.5 s faster than the leading Barrichello but then the rain started again on lap 68 and Ricardo had to cruise to the finish to take the chequered flag for the first time in a Formula 1 race in 9th position.
"I had a dry weather set-up on the car and it was much better in the fast corners to begin with. When the track started to dry I changed back to dry tyres and was really able to push then. I'm only sorry that it started to rain again as I was catching Panis very quickly and could have finished much higher, When the rain came I had to back off and just go to the end."
Warmup:
19th, 1:37.415 +5.324, 12 laps
Race:
9th 1:59:53.107 +1:28.764
FL: 1.20.881 0n lap 19 (7th, +1.654)
Winner: Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan-Honda)