had similar poor performances like Frentzen. In an interview with The Sunday Independent in 2005, Jordan later claimed that Frentzen was sacked because engine supplier Honda wanted Japanese driver Takuma Sato to race for Jordan in 2002 and to retain Honda's engine supply. Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the Grand Prix. Williams, Jaguar, Ferrari, Sauber and Prost all brought updated front wings. Ferrari also introduced a new underfloor and brought more powerful versions of their V10 engines for qualifying and the race. Williams installed extra cooling on their cars to combat high temperatures in qualifying. Minardi planned to introduce a new revision to their cars aerodynamic package which included a new engine cover, a titanium gearbox and rear suspension geometry. The team decided to only test the gearbox during the first free practice session. Practice There were four practice sessions preceding Sunday's race—two one-hour sessions on Friday, and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The Friday practice sessions were held in dry and hot weather. Barrichello lapped fastest in the first session, at 1 minute and 41.953 seconds, late on, going three-tenths of a second quicker than early pace setter, Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa. Coulthard was third fastest despite going off the circuit at the Clark chicane. Michael Schumacher, fourth, went off at the Senna chicane. Ralf Schumacher, Häkkinen, Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya, Eddie Irvine (Jaguar), Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton) and Jordan's Jarno Trulli followed in positions five through ten. Other drivers went off the circuit during the session. In the second practice session, Irvine reset the circuit lap record at 1:41.424 25 minutes in. He was ahead of Montoya in second who had extra wing and a stiffer rear-end to deal with an understeer he had been affected by. Häkkinen ran with a heavy fuel load and was the highest-placed Bridgestone-shod entrant in third, with Barrichello fourth. Michael Schumacher took fifth place, running wide at the circuit's chicanes which prevented him from setting a quicker lap. De La Rosa, whose car developed an engine hydraulics issue, Coulthard, Prost's Jean Alesi, Trulli. and Ralf Schumacher, who collided with the Sudkurve tyre barrier after going wide in the stadium section and hitting a kerb during his first time lap after five minutes, followed in the top ten. Tarso Marques lost control of his Minardi car at the Ostkurve corner and his teammate Fernando Alonso drove into the