Tuesday February 8th, 2000

By Michele Lupini, South Africa

Grey skies and unfamiliar, continual rain greeted the Williams and BAR teams at Kyalami, South Africa yesterday, as both prepared for a test session at the circuit, north of Johannesburg from tomorrow.

Although cars circulated at times in order to set up telemetry, little more could be achieved in a town renowned for great, sunny weather at this time of the year. Despite the rain stopping the evening, today has a forecast of 80% possibility of rain, while Wednesday and Thursday also set for albeit lesser chances of wet conditions. The weekend and Monday, however, have been given a regular, sunny African forecast.

Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button are on hand for BMW-Williams, who will be hoping to get down to some serious testing, while Jacques Villeneuve Ricardo Zonta will do duty for BAR-Honda.

The Kyalami session is open to the public, and like last year should attract a significant crowd of F1-starved South Africans. 65 000 people turned up to watch the four cars last February when the same teams tested at Kyalami. South Africa is hoping for a grand prix in 2001 or 2002.