| 24/06/02 :: Orange Arrows race story |
The OrangeArrows team had an eventful weekend at the Nürburgring for the 2002 European Grand Prix. Both drivers made good progress throughout the race, with some excellent battles to bring the cars home, with Enrique Bernoldi taking a top ten position, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished 13th.
A disappointing result in qualifying left Enrique down in 21st position, while teammate, Heinz, benefited from some changes to his A23 - enough to post 15th fastest time. Much of the session was spent working on the car's set up to improve its balance to get the all-important quick lap.
At the start of the race, Heinz got away cleanly but he was leapfrogged by Irvine in the Jaguar. As the cars funnelled down to the trickily tight new first corner complex, Heinz was forced off-track to avoid a spinning Jordan, but was able to recover and had soon regained the lost time. Enrique meanwhile made an excellent start, flying up to 15th. His charge continued, and by lap two, he had passed Irvine's Jaguar for 14th.
Lap six, and both drivers gained another place as Salo in the Toyota spun off. With both OrangeArrows cars running in tandem holding strong positions, the team asked Enrique to allow his teammate through. An off-track excursion for Heinz just a few laps later however, handed the advantage back to Enrique.
Both Enrique and Heinz were running on a two-stop strategy and they pitted on consecutive laps from 12th and 13th positions respectively. Although Enrique's stop went smoothly, Heinz was less fortunate. The FIA issued fuel-rig aborted for the third time in as many races. Heinz lost valuable time in the pits and rejoined the track in 18th place. Both drivers set about claiming back some of the lost ground and though Heinz's work was seemingly cut out for him, both pushed hard to keep a good pace and maintain progress.
Pleased with his car's balance and handling, Heinz had recovered 13th place by the team's second round of stops. On lap 43, Enrique dived into the pits from tenth. Eager to retain his track advantage over Villeneuve in the BAR, he emerged just three places down and, within two laps, he was 11th. Heinz's second stop was thankfully trouble-free and the remaining laps were a battle for extra places. His charge saw him overtake Toyota's Allan McNish for 13th and make a dive at Villeneuve's BAR. Enrique's final laps were no less exciting as, on the last lap, his attack saw him pull out all the stops to pass de la Rosa in the Jaguar to take his place in the top ten.
Content to see both cars cross the line in 10th and 13th positions, the OrangeArrows team had mixed emotions. Another solid performance and strong drives from both drivers went some way to making up for the recurring fuel-rig problem which hampered Heinz's pit-stop.
Enrique Bernoldi was delighted with his race and relished his last lap battle...
"I enjoyed today's race more than any other. I had a great start and could fight for places throughout the race and basically enjoyed every bit of it! I have to say that the best bit was probably the last lap as I managed to overtake Pedro (de la Rosa) on the outside of the chicane which pleased me a lot as I didn't want him to beat me!"
Heinz-Harald Frentzen also enjoyed his race despite frustration with his fuel-rig...
"I really enjoyed the race today as I was having a lot of good fights for position. It's a shame it wasn't a fight for points but enjoyable nonetheless. The car felt extremely good throughout the race as we managed to sort out the balance this morning. The fuel rig problem is very annoying. I think we need to go and get a new one!" |
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