Alesi takes fastest time for Sauber

After curing their brake and gearbox problems of the previous week, the Sauber team were back with Jean Alesi on Wednesday, the Frenchman setting an impressive series of race runs and 84 laps before descending to a best of 1m 21,71 secs, the best time of the day, just before the close of practice. Pedro Diniz was due to take over on Wednesday.

Hakkinen still quick

Mika Hakkinen continued to set the pace during pre-season testing in Barcelona on Tuesday when four teams returned to the Catalunya circuit for the final test before the Australian Grand Prix. After a trouble free day Hakkinen set the second fastest time in the early afternoon with a 1m 22,77 secs while running in race configuration. David Coulthard, running a second new MP4/14 chassis was third fastest at 1m 22,86 secs , his long run in the afternoon spoiled when the car stopped on the circuit with electrical problems, the Scot running just 39 laps for the day.

Jordan work on the set-up

With Heinz Harald Frentzen getting his own race chassis for this week's test, the two Jordan drivers took advantage of the ideal weather conditions to work on different set-ups. Damon Hill set the fourth fastest time of the day with a 1m 23,18 secs, Frentzen running a 1m 23,3 secs in his first couple of runs with the car before trying different set-ups and some practice starts during 61 laps for the day.

Troubled day for Prost

The Prost team had a second chassis being completed in the garage and the first new AP02 for Jarno Trulli on Wednesday, but the Italian did only 22 laps in the morning before stopping after suffering two rear wing failures. The team worked on a solution in order to run the car on Thursday when Panis was due to take over.

TEST TIMES BARCELONA 17-02-99

1 Jean Alesi       Sauber-Petronas C18      1:21.70 secs
2 Mika Hakkinen    McLaren-Mercedes MP4/14  1:22.77 secs
3 David Coulthard  McLaren-Mercedes MP4/14  1:22.85 secs
4 Damon Hill       Jordan-Mugen Honda 199   1:23.17 secs
5 H.H. Frentzen    Jordan-Mugen Honda 199   1:23.29 secs
6 Jarno Trulli     Prost-Peugeot AP02       1:23.65 secs