Tuesday February 8th, 2000

By Michele Lupini, South Africa

While greater Johannesburg, South Africa almost came to a standstill thanks to flood conditions today, the visiting BAR and Williams F1 teams got down to the business of testing at the Kyalami circuit.

Despite rivulets of water flowing across a drying track in places, BAR-Honda's Jacques Villeneuve managed a time of 1:34.04 during 38 laps just before lunch while apparently testing seats and steering wheels on hard compound wet tyres.

BMW-Williams' Jenson Button completed 8 laps after a few installation sessions, getting down to a 1:38.55 in the process. Teammate Ralf Schumacher ran four laps with no time, while BAR's Ricardo Zonta never ran today - heavy rains curtailed progress later in the afternoon.

Known for its sunny South African conditions at this time of the year usually only interrupted by evening thundershowers, the continual, heavy rains are out of character and continue a particularly wet summer in Johannesburg. While the forecast is for more rain tomorrow, it is hoped the showers will be more sporadic allowing the teams some time to get on with testing.

It is expected to start clearing Thursday, although Friday is currently set as a rest day, sunny conditions could well see the teams testing solidly through till Monday to make up for lost time due to the wet conditions.