Silverstone, 23 April
Testing at Silverstone a week before the British GP Ricardo had a horrible high speed crash at Stowe. It was his third big accident in a BAR in just over a year.
The weather was continually changing during Friday practice and BAR tested wet weather setups. Ricardo also tried to build up his confidence in the car after the accident. He had both technical difficulties and a spin.
"The conditions, particularly this afternoon, were very difficult. They seemed to change every run that we made. We also lost some time at the beginning of the afternoon session while the mechanics sorted out a clutch problem. When the heavy rain came part way through the
afternoon session, the car was aqua-planing really badly and that was what caused me to spin off the track. We'll aim to do better tomorrow.
Friday 1st practice: 19th, 1:31.322
Friday combined practice: 20th, 1:31.322, 20 laps
Qualifying took place in drying up conditions and Ricardo paid the price for his lack of testing.
Ricardo's first lap was a 1:34.199. With a 1:29.978 he momentarily held sixth position but then only managed to better to a 1:27.772, and fell back to 16th.
"It's disappointing. We missed the chance to test in the dry last week because of the accident and maybe we could have improved the balance of the car if we had had more time. I had some understeer on the first lap of my last run and also had many yellows. I hope to do better in the race."
Saturday practice: 15th, 1:35.679, 34 laps
Qualifying: 16th, 1:27.772, 12 laps
With the car heavy with fuel Ricardo came away quite slowly and moved towards the middle of the track immediately passing a struggling Diniz (Sauber) and Herbert (Jaguar) but having to give way for Salo (Sauber). After some slight contacts in the first corner the field settled down with Ricardo in 15th position. He lost a position to Wurz (Benetton) on lap 5 but then Ricardo started to gain positions. Stops by Wurz (lap 14), Salo (lap 15), Fisichella (lap 18),Verstappen (lap 20), Alesi (lap 23) and Irvine (lap 26) moved Ricardo up to 10th. Ricardo was now up to speed and set the fastest lap of the race (1:27.655) on lap 27 before making a 12.7s stop for fuel and tyres on the next lap.Ricardo rejoined the race in 14th position behind Irvine and moved back up to 11th when he lost the car in Stowe on lap 36, spun and got stalled in the sand trap.
Warmup: 15th, 1:28.144, 13 laps
Race: DNF 36 laps spun off
FL: 1:27.655 on lap 27 (+1.438, 8th)
Winner: David Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes)