Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race, two each on Friday and Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted an hour; the third and fourth sessions, on Saturday morning, lasted 45 minutes each. The Saturday morning practice and afternoon qualifying sessions began 45 minutes earlier from their usual start times of 09:00 CEST (UTC+2), 10:15 and 14:00 to accommodate the final two quarter-final matches of the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan on the same day. Conditions for the Friday practice sessions were warm and overcast. Barrichello set the fastest time of the first practice session with a lap time of 1 minute and 33.665 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than his Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher. Nick Heidfeld (with a time of 1:34.924) was third fastest, ahead of Allan McNish and Felipe Massa. Coulthard, Frentzen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Mika Salo and Montoya rounded out the top ten fastest drivers of the session. Enrique Bernoldi lost the rear-end of his Arrows at the Ford Kurve in the 36th minute of the session and his car's right side made light contact with a tyre wall; this required a yellow-flag to be shown as marshals were needed to remove Bernoldi's car from the track. In the second practice session, Coulthard was the fastest driver with a time of 1:31.886 despite going off into a gravel trap at Dunlop Kurve; Räikkönen finished with the third quickest time. The Ferrari drivers second and fourth; Michael Schumacher ahead of Barrichello. They were followed by the two Williamses of Montoya (who complained of understeer) and Ralf Schumacher. Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button were seventh and eighth for Renault with Salo and Panis completing the top ten.