Monday December 13th, 1999

Rubens Barrichello was the fastest driver in his first major test for Ferrari today at a damp Jerez. His time was more than a second faster than any other driver was able to manage today. Second and third fastest were the two Stewart cars, with test driver Luciano Burti just edging out Johnny Herbert.

Minardi was fourth fastest with Marc Gene, who worked on clutch and gearbox solutions. Minardi also started their "young driver" tests, with Italian F3000 champion and eighteen year old Spanish Euro Open by Nissan champion Fernando Alonso spending some time in the car today, Alonso only one second exactly slower than Gene. BAR ran its 2000 car in its first serious test, Ricardo Zonta completing 32 laps.

Eddie Irvine and the McLaren team are expected to join the test tomorrow.

Pos  Driver      Team                Time    

 1.  Barrichello Ferrari             1:39.136      

 2.  Burti       Stewart-Ford        1:40.276

 3.  Herbert     Stewart-Ford        1:40.384

 4.  Gene        Minardi-Ford        1:42.474

 5.  Zonta       BAR-Honda           1:42.862

 6.  Alonso      Minardi-Ford        1:43.474

 7.  Vinella     Minardi-Ford        1:45.747