His EJ12 finished the two practice sessions just behind the Ferrari pairing of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello while David Coulthard was fourth with McLaren team mate Kimi Raikkonen and former Jordan ace, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, rounding out the top six.

Fisichella was quick throughout both the one hour sessions, the rain soaked Imola track clearly suiting his EJ12 on its Bridgestone wets. There has been much talk of the Michelin rubber being better than it's Japanese rival in the heat, but there is not much doubt that Bridgestone rule the roost in the wet, and boy was it wet in both sessions.

Giancarlo ended the session 0.7 sec ahead of Coulthard in the lead McLaren and 1.4 sec ahead of Montoya in the best placed Williams.
"I am very pleased with how the free practice went," said Giancarlo. "Clearly the wet and cold conditions here in Imola suit our package well so we are more competitive. The conditions on the track were very difficult but I don't mind driving in the wet at all and would be happy if it stayed wet for qualifying. If it does I believe we could qualify in the top six."

Team mate Takuma Sato had a slightly fraught practice, spinning off a couple of times and running through a gravel trap, but the car was undamaged and he was suffering no more than several other more experienced drivers - notably Ralf Schumacher who had several offs in his Williams. Taku ended up setting the 11th fastest time, a creditable performance given that this is his first ever visit to the Imola circuit.
"I felt very comfortable with the car," said Taku, "and in the full wet conditions first thing this morning but as the track dried out and I found things a lot more difficult as it was hard to get traction and braking stability.
"The balance improved when we changed tyres towards the end of the session and I think once we have worked with the data we will find a good set up for tomorrow."

Gary Anderson, Director of Race and Test at Jordan, was also very encouraged. He is now looking forward to running the enhanced RA002E engine in tomorrow's qualifying session. "This is the first European race of the season and it is also the coldest and wettest conditions we've experienced so far," he noted.
"All the teams, including our partner teams, have been trying out different settings today, and so far we haven't experienced any problems whatsoever from an engine point of view. In testing the feedback from the Honda-powered drivers regarding the driveability of the new Imola-spec engine has been good, and we will be running it from tomorrow onwards so we hope to see better results overall throughout the weekend."

There is a good chance that tomorrow's qualifying session will also be wet, although probably not quite as bad as today. Fisi will be looking to repeat his excellent performance and claim Jordan's first top 6 qualifying spot of the year. Takuma knows he can also perform well and a top 10 grid position would be a great achievement.