Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished yesterday's first free practice sessions down in fourteenth place and was not too pleased with the day's work. His day was plagued with clutch gremlins due to the newly implemented traction control system.

Heinz-Harald left the Catalunya circuit twice yesterday, spinning at the same spot and he has blamed the incidents on a software problem after he went to downshift to brake for a corner and the computer decided to put the car into sixth gear instead. These minor bugs are among the many things that need to be ironed out to ensure the new traction control systems work efficiently.

“This was one of the days when you have to be careful not be too angry,” Frentzen stated. “I had a problem twice at the same place, and every time it was a software problem. On a certain part of the track, I want to shift back into fourth gear while braking for a corner but the computer shifts up into sixth gear. Instead of braking, the car was pulling forward. By and large, there is still much to do. Though we've done many tests at Barcelona, we haven't worked with the traction control in Spain yet. So we still have to gather plenty of data to adapt the traction control perfectly to the track.”