Tuesday April 2nd, 2002

German Nick Heidfeld topped the timesheets on the first day of testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain, where eight Formula One teams got back to action only two days after competing at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

All nine drivers present today at the Ricardo Tormo circuit were forced to carry out their work in the wet, as a continuous rain flooded the track.

Sauber driver Heidfeld, who did not finish the race in Brazil on Sunday, completed 43 laps at the wheel of the Bridgestone-shod C21, being more than half a second faster than Jordan's Takuma Sato.

"I mainly concentrated on set-up work today," said Heidfeld. "I had a trouble-free day. The car was quite difficult to handle on this wet track. It is very slippery because of all the rubber left over from the motorcycle race this weekend. At one point I spun off, but the car just stopped on the gravel.

"I'm very satisfied with the way the car went. I am feeling very optimistic for tomorrow's program but hope that the weather clears up a little bit."

Briton Eddie Irvine was the quickest of the Michelin runners with the Jaguar R3, the Ulsterman outpacing Williams test driver Antonio Pizzonia and McLaren's Alexander Wurz. The Williams team were the only ones working with two drivers today, and Spaniard Marc Gene finished sixth.

Renault test driver Fernando Alonso was seventh quickest, the young driver suffering the only incident of the day when he spun his car and crashed against the wall separating the track from the pitlane, causing damage to his Michelin-shod R202. Despite the incident, Alonso admitted he was "pleased" with his progress.

"We are testing almost every week and these tests are good to improve the car, but also so I can get ready for next season," said Alonso at the end of the day.

Toyota's Allan McNish and British American Racing driver Anthony Davidson finished at the bottom of the times, more than five seconds off the pace.

"We have had a very bad day weather-wise, so we used the time today to develop wet weather set-up and we also did some tyre testing for Michelin," said McNish.

"The weather was rather extreme at times and the session has been constantly interrupted by cars going off the track as a direct result of these wet conditions".

Testing at Valencia continues on Wednesday.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Petronas     (B)    1:33.027  43
 2.  Sato          Jordan-Honda        (B)    1:33.586  69
 3.  Irvine        Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:34.728  31
 4.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW        (M)    1:35.440  58
 5.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:36.067  53
 6.  Gene          Williams-BMW        (M)    1:37.269  38
 7.  Alonso        Renault             (M)    1:38.403  18
 8.  McNish        Toyota              (M)    1:38.403  50
 9.  Davidson      BAR-Honda           (B)    1:38.588  37

All Timing Unofficial