Tuesday September 17th, 2002

Just two days after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Formula One teams got back to work at Barcelona for a four-day test ahead of the United States Grand Prix next week.

Only Williams and McLaren were in action today at the Spanish circuit, with British American Racing and Jaguar expected to join the session tomorrow.

McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz set the pace on the first day of work with the Michelin-shod MP4-17. The Austrian, who was also the busiest man of the session with 80 laps, was slightly faster than Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia in the first of the Williams.

Pizzonia will test for the Grove-based team before switching to the Jaguar squad, with whom he will work on Thursday and Friday alongside Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa. Pizzonia completed a total of 77 laps today and finished more than four seconds ahead of teammate Marc Gene, who only covered 26 laps as he tested new components in his Williams.

"A productive day at Barcelona with Antonio Pizzonia working with new suspension components and tyre testing with our technical partners Michelin," said Williams test team manager Tim Newton. "Marc Gene had a slow start on his first day and we are working on improvements for tomorrow."

Briton Darren Turner was also in action on track working for McLaren, the young driver posting the third quickest time of the day after 42 laps.

Testing at Barcelona continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:19.229  80
 2.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW        (M)    1:19.528  77
 3.  Turner        McLaren-Mercedes    (M)    1:22.033  42
 4.  Gene          Williams-BMW        (M)    1:23.664  26

All Timing Unofficial