Sunday March 12th, 2000

Ferrari new boy Brazilian Rubens Barrichello clocked the fastest time ahead of Briton Jenson Button, in a Williams, in the warm-up for Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Barrichello recorded a best lap time of one minute and 31.225 seconds which was half a second better than that of Button, whose dismal day on Saturday in qualifying was partly- erased by his encouraging performance.

Button had suffered a slight oil-leak and fire in the pits before he clocked his best time to wind up ahead of third-placed defending world champion Finn Mika Hakkinen in his McLaren- Mercedes-Benz. Hakkinen will start the race from pole position with his team-mate Briton David Coulthard alongside him. Coulthard was fourth-fastest in the warm-up.

German Michael Schumacher, who is hunting a good start to the season to raise his hopes of a third world title and Ferrari's first drivers' crown in 21 years, was eighth-fastest, but lost his best lap when the red flag fell at the end of the session.

Pos  Driver         Team                 Time               
 1.  Barrichello    Ferrari              1:31.225           
 2.  Button         Williams BMW         1:32.798   +  1.573
 3.  Hakkinen       McLaren Mercedes     1:32.918   +  1.693
 4.  Coulthard      McLaren Mercedes     1:33.034   +  1.809
 5.  Verstappen     Arrows Supertec      1:33.189   +  1.964
 6.  Fisichella     Benetton Playlife    1:33.263   +  2.038
 7.  Alesi          Prost Peugeot        1:33.491   +  2.266
 8.  M.Schumacher   Ferrari              1:33.557   +  2.332
 9.  de la Rosa     Arrows Supertec      1:33.928   +  2.703
10.  Salo           Sauber Petronas      1:33.967   +  2.742
11.  Trulli         Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:33.981   +  2.756
12.  R.Schumacher   Williams BMW         1:34.031   +  2.806
13.  Zonta          BAR Honda            1:34.200   +  2.975
14.  Villeneuve     BAR Honda            1:34.200   +  2.975
15.  Wurz           Benetton Playlife    1:34.214   +  2.989
16.  Diniz          Sauber Petronas      1:34.345   +  3.120
17.  Gene           Minardi Fondmetal    1:34.378   +  3.153
18.  Irvine         Jaguar Cosworth      1:34.541   +  3.316
19.  Frentzen       Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:35.092   +  3.867
20.  Mazzacane      Minardi Fondmetal    1:35.840   +  4.615
21.  Heidfeld       Prost Peugeot        1:37.022   +  5.797
22.  Herbert        Jaguar Cosworth      1:48.934   + 17.709

All timing unofficial