Trulli tops times on final day at Barcelona…

Running on a fresh set of 2001-spec tyres, Trulli's time of 1m19.956s was six tenths faster than Heidfeld's fastest lap from this morning and almost 1.5s quicker than Michael Schumacher's pole position time from this year's Spanish Grand Prix.

Rubens Barrichello, who returned to the cockpit of his Ferrari after test driver Luca Badoer took over for Tuesday, managed to improve from fifth place in the morning to third at the close of play, demoting David Coulthard's McLaren to fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen took a trip into the gravel during the afternoon running and did not improve on his 1m20.606s. The young Finn dropped to fifth place after he had occupied third spot halfway through the day.

"We are very pleased with the way that Kimi Raikkonen has been driving," said Sauber test team manager Jacky Eeckelaert. "It took him only a few laps before he was setting competitive times. This afternoon he did his first real race distance in race conditions."

Olivier Panis continued to outpace 1997 world champion team mate Jacques Villeneuve at British American Racing, despite a trip across the gravel and into a tyre wall at the end of the day caused by a brake fluid leak. Sources suggest Villeneuve's lack of pace was down to the Canadian struggling to adjust to British American Racing's traction control system.

Conditions finally improved in Portugal allowing the Michelin teams to carry out some much-needed running in the dry. Benetton's Jenson Button was the first to take to the damp Estoril circuit on dry tyres.

The young Brit went quickest, almost half a second ahead of the second-placed Jaguar of Eddie Irvine who stayed in the R1B all afternoon leaving test driver Tomas Scheckter on the sidelines.

Webber finished the day slowest in the second Benetton and brought proceedings to a halt late in the afternoon when the Australian's all-new Renault V10 gave way as he exited the final corner. Plumes of smoke from the B200 left a trail of oil the length of the pit straight, which the Enstone team reported as "an oil pressure problem".

Only Button, Irvine and the Williams-BMW of Juan Pablo Montoya ventured out in the 15 minutes that remained at the end of the session once the marshals had cleaned up the oil slick.

Michelin running concludes tomorrow, but the Bridgestone-shod teams will not run again until the New Year.


1 Jarno Trulli (Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1m19.586s
2 Nick Heidfeld (Sauber-Petronas) 1m19.956s
3 Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) 1m20.429s
4 David Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) 1m20.476s
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Sauber-Petronas) 1m20.606s
6 Olivier Panis (BAR-Honda) 1m20.610s
7 Jacques Villeneuve (BAR-Honda) 1m20.198s
8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1m20.984s
9 Alex Wurz * (McLaren-Mercedes) 1m21.378s


1 Jenson Button (Benetton-Renault) 1m21.54s
2 Eddie Irvine (Jaguar) 1m21.95s
3 Luciano Burti (Jaguar) 1m22.04
4 Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW) 1m22.18s
5 Marc Gene * (BMW-Williams) 1m23.03
6 Mark Webber * (Benetton-Renault) 1m23.59s