Wednesday May 15th, 2002

Spaniard Marc Gene set a blistering pace on the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit, where seven Formula One drivers were in action today as they prepare for the Monaco Grand Prix next week.

The Williams test driver, working alongside Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, was only 13 hundreds of a second slower than the previous track record, set by McLaren's David Coulthard earlier this year.

Gene, who was also more than 1.5 seconds faster than Pizzonia, completed a massive 114 laps, the Brazilian also having a hard day of work, completing 105.

"We had a productive day in Valencia today with Marc concentrating on performance runs to evaluate new tyre developments for Monaco," said Williams chief operations engineer Sam Michael. "Michelin appear to have taken another step forward but we will find out in Monaco.

"Antonio's program has been long runs for engine and chassis race simulation work. He has done a solid couple of days testing and Ralf will take over this car tomorrow for the remainder of the test."

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit for the second consecutive day, was third quickest at the wheel of the first of the British American Racing cars. The second Honda-powered chassis was driven by test driver Anthony Davidson, who completed only six laps and finished at the bottom of the timesheets.

Renault driver Jarno Trulli was joined today by Spanish tester Fernando Alonso, as the French squad continued with the development of the Michelin-shod R202 chassis. The Italian was some two tenths faster than the young Alonso, who outpaced Giancarlo Fisichella in the only Jordan on track.

Testing will resume on Thursday.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Gene          Williams-BMW        (M)    1:10.451 114
 2.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW        (M)    1:12.001 105
 3.  Villeneuve    BAR-Honda           (B)    1:12.516  51
 4.  Trulli        Renault             (M)    1:12.721  55
 5.  Alonso        Renault             (M)    1:12.955  55
 6.  Fisichella    Jordan-Honda        (B)    1:13.118  60
 7.  Davidson      BAR-Honda           (B)    1:15.145   6

All Timing Unofficial