Jacques Villeneuve and his British American Racing-Supertec 01 set the fastest time today, during the first day of a major three-day Formula One test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. Villeneuve, who ran for a total of 65 untroubled laps, set his best time of 1 min 24. 80 secs while working through a busy technical programme. "It's been a good day," concluded Villeneuve. "We've been able to concentrate on set-ups instead of worrying about reliability. We've done some interesting work and found some good set-ups for the car. We also managed to improve our speed and covered quite a lot of laps. All of this is very positive, especially with Brazil coming up."
Unofficial lap times | ||
Jacques Villeneuve (BAR) | 1:24.80 | 65 laps |
Alex Zanardi (Williams) | 1:24.92 | 69 laps |
Jarno Trulli (Prost) | 1:24.94 | 36 laps |
Ralf Schumacher (Williams) | 1:24.98 | 60 laps |
Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton) | 1:25.04 | 36 laps |
Ricardo Zonta (BAR) | 1:25.14 | 40 laps |
Alexander Wurz (Benetton) | 1:26.20 | 11 laps |
Stephane Sarrazin (Prost) | 1:26.45 | 49 laps |
Meanwhile Ferrari was testing on the Mugello track. Michael Schumacher concentrated his work on the set-up of the F399. He also tested some new aerodynamic solutions. Schumacher completed a total of 35 laps, with a best time of 1.26.801. Eddie Irvine took over in the afternoon. He did a total of 47 laps, the quickest in 1.27.150. Ferrari reported no technical problems.