Friday June 28th, 2002

McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz topped the timesheets on the final day of testing at the Barcelona circuit this week, where seven Formula One teams worked from Tuesday in preparation for the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit.

The Austrian tester outpaced German Arrows driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen by nearly seven tenths of a second, with Briton Jenson Button posting the third quickest time of the day in the only Renault on track.

"An effective day's work to round off a useful week," said Mike Gascoyne, Renault's technical director. "Jenson did a lot of miles this week, which allowed us to complete a number of development programmes, including some promising engine developments."

The Williams team had a very busy Friday, with test drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Marc Gene completing more than 240 laps between them. The young Brazilian was the quickest of the two, while the Spaniard covered more than two race distances at the wheel of the BMW-powered car.

"The team has had a very intense test programme for four days with two cars in Barcelona," said BMW boss Mario Theissen. "Apart from supporting the tyre and chassis development, we also tested different engine mappings and made some race simulations."

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa tested for the first time today the revised Jaguar R3B, taking over from teammate Eddie Irvine, who was slowest yesterday. The new machine failed to shine again, and de la Rosa was slightly faster than Australian Mark Webber.

"I'm really satisfied with the job done and all I can say now is that we've given a big step forward looking back to the first round of the season held in Australia," said de la Rosa.

"However, it's not good to show too much optimism because we won't get any 'true' results until we get to the British Grand Prix next weekend. We know that the new aero package has improved the car's performance and we will go on from there."

Minardi driver Webber debuted with the Milton Keynes team, using the original R3 car to finish at the bottom of the times.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:17.597  96
 2.  Frentzen      Arrows-Cosworth     (B)    1:18.250  63
 3.  Button        Renault             (M)    1:18.684  61
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:18.691  29
 5.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW        (M)    1:18.772 103
 6.  Gene          Williams-BMW        (M)    1:18.964 141
 7.  De la Rosa    Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:19.689  65
 8.  Webber        Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:19.724  58

All Timing Unofficial