Friday May 26th, 2000
Sauber's Mika Salo was fastest at the third and final day of testing at Valencia yesterday.
Salo completed 111 laps of the Valencia circuit, setting a fastest time of 1:16.38 while testing tyres in the morning and working on set-up in the afternoon. Salo commented: "I'd never seen this track before yesterday, when I did a lap in the evening in my hire car. I’ve had a lot of fun on it, and it’s been a good day without any problems. We did a lot of aerodynamic research and learned a lot about the different steps for our set-up. The C19 was pretty good here, so I’m looking forward to Monaco."
Second fastest of the day was Jarno Trulli who had a trouble-free day following the incident with Fisichella the day before. Trulli also worked on tyre evaluation, general set-up for the upcoming Monaco race and brake duct evaluation, as well as practising starts.
Antonio Pizzonia tested alone for Benetton following Fisichella's accident yesterday which left the team with just one car at the Valencia circuit. In his first full day of testing in a Formula One car, Pizzonia worked on set-up whilst spinning off once, setting the third fastest time of the day with a 1:16.97.
Pedro de la Rosa completed 68 laps in his Arrows, working on chassis settings for the upcoming race, despite suffering some minor mechanical problems.
Eddie Irvine set the slowest time of the day while testing dampers, new brakes and performing a number of practice starts to see if changes to the clutch had been an improvement, which they were.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher tested at Fiorano, with a best lap of 1:01.222, working through an aerodynamic and set-up programme started by Badoer the day before. Schumacher will continue testing at Fiorano today.
Yesterday's times from Valencia:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Salo Sauber-Petronas 1:16.38
2. Trulli Jordan-Mugen Honda 1:16.73
3. Pizzonia Benetton-Playlife 1:16.97
4. de la Rosa Arrows-Supertec 1:17.54
5. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth 1:17.75