Brno 2002 - 19/05/2002   18/05/2002 Free Practice notes   Free Practice- First Rydell in Volvo shocks the Alfa's Rickard Rydell, at the wheel of his Prodrive-built Volvo S60, set the fastest time at the very end of the first free practice session. His lap of 2:14.564 eclipsed the previous best time, set by Fabrizio Giovanardi, by 0.201 seconds. The Alfa Romeo driver, currently leading the championship, had set his best time in his first lap out of the pits, with a lap of 2:14.765 that remained the fastest in the session until Rydell's exploit just before the chequered flag. This was the first time this season that an official timed session was not led by an Alfa Romeo 156 Gta. Third in the first free practice, 0.524 seconds behind Rydell, was Dirk Muller, the best of the BMW drivers. Behind the young German, Giovanardi's team-mate Nicola Larini and AGS Motorsport driver Paolo Ruberti set the fourth and fifth times, respectively 0.959 and 1.104 seconds behind. Scuderia Bigazzi obtained promising results by placing its two Alfa Romeo 156 Gta cars driven by Spaniard Luis Villamil and Frenchman Eric Cayrolle, in sixth and eighth positions; while Briton James Hanson managed to squeeze between them in seventh place, confirming the improvement in the performance of the Volvo S60. Sandro Sardelli's CiBiEmme Honda Civic Type-R was the only car not to set a time, having covered only one lap. The team's other driver, Salvatore Tavano continued to develop the Super 2000 version of the Japanese car and set the 17th time. Tommy Rustad and his RJN Motorsport Nissan Primera completed only three laps before suffering engine problems, which also forced him to miss most of the second session. Free Practice- Second Yet another shock as Luis Villamil goes quickest Rydell managed to improve his first session lap time by 35 thousandths of a second, but this was not enough for him to top the practice classification, as Scuderia Bigazzi driver Luis Villamil created a surprise by clocking the fastest time of 2:14.320 as the chequered flag fell. The Spaniard's time, set with new tyres, was also the fastest overall time from the two free practice sessions. Rydell was classified second, 0.209 seconds behind Villamil, with Giovanardi third, 0.348 slower. Once more, Dirk Muller proved to be the fastest of the BMW drivers, setting a time of 2:15.215. He was closely followed by Ravaglia Motorsport's Fabrizio De Simone; the two drivers being placed fourth and fifth respectively. Cayrolle set the sixth time to complete Scuderia Bigazzi's excellent result. Both the two CiBiEmme Honda Civic cars of Tavano and Sardelli covered a number of laps, constantly improving their lap times. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport