Thursday March 21st, 2002

World Champion Michael Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello dominated on the third day of testing at the Barcelona circuit in Spain.

Both Ferrari drivers worked at the wheel of the new F2002 chassis, as the Italian squad continue to evaluate the new machine in order to decide which car to take to next week's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The two race drivers worked on development of the new car, concentrating on fine tuning the set-up, with Schumacher being more than four tenths of a second quicker than Brazilian Barrichello.

Ferrari's test driver Luca Badoer was also in action today. The Italian continued with a new tyre development programme with the F2001, setting the sixth quickest time. McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz, who was quickest in the first two days, was third today with the Mercedes-powered MP4-16B.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa continued testing with both the Jaguar R2 and R3 chassis, posting a promising fourth fastest time with the old machine, finishing ahead of compatriot Marc Gene, who was the quickest of the Williams drivers with an updated version of last year's FW23.

McLaren's David Coulthard, who is yet to score a point this season, was one of the men who joined the session today, the Scot being seventh quickest with the second car from the Woking-based squad. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella also tested for the first time this week for Jordan, as he replaced teammate Takuma Sato.

French Olivier Panis and test driver Anthony Davidson worked for the British American Racing team, while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve recovers from a back injury that forced him to cancel this week's test.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was eleventh fastest with the Sauber C21, the young rookie concentrating on aerodynamic set-up work for the Brazilian GP, also working on a brake development programme.

"Once again we had a worthwhile day free of problems," said Massa. "We gained satisfactory data on the brakes and tyres, and completed valuable work in readiness for my home Grand Prix at Interlagos next week. I'm headed there tonight, and as of now I can already prepare myself mentally for the race in Sao Paulo."

Finn Mika Salo was the only Toyota driver in action at Barcelona on Thursday, the Finn taking over from Australian tester Ryan Briscoe. Salo, at the wheel of the Japanese squad's TF102 chassis, completed a total of 47 laps, setting the 13th quickest time.

"It has not been such a good day today," said Salo. "We had some small trouble with the hydraulics which stopped us quite a bit and we have experienced some other problems. Having said that at the end of the day we found out some useful things in preparation for the next few races."

Renault's Jarno Trulli finished at the bottom of the times after being hampered by problems in his Renault RS02.

"A frustrating day for the whole team," said Renault's technical director Mike Gascoyne. "A problem at the front of the car, which we didn't manage to fully identify, meant Jarno couldn't complete his programme.

"The car will be completely rebuilt tonight in order that Jenson can take over tomorrow."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)    1:18.408  71
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari             (B)    1:18.834  58
 3.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:18.864  85
 4.  De la Rosa    Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:19.234  80
 5.  Gene          Williams-BMW        (M)    1:19.535 107
 6.  Badoer        Ferrari             (B)    1:19.563  98
 7.  Coulthard     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:19.846  62
 8.  Fisichella    Jordan-Honda        (B)    1:20.374  60
 9.  Panis         BAR-Honda           (B)    1:20.510  66
10.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW        (M)    1:20.649  80
11.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas     (B)    1:20.737  79
12.  Davidson      BAR-Honda           (B)    1:21.284  82
13.  Salo          Toyota              (M)    1:22.100  47
14.  Trulli        Renault             (M)    1:38.057   7

All Timing Unofficial