Valencia, day three: Rubens finishes fastest

Barrichello continued to work through a development programme with Bridgestone, setting a best lap of 1m14.961s late in the afternoon. The Brazilian completed a total of 64 laps, thanks in part to running being extended by half an hour to 1730 local time (1630 GMT).

Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen, fastest in the morning session, improved his time to 1m15.049s as he continued to test a form of traction control.

His team mate, test driver Ricardo Zonta finished fourth fastest. Sources at Valencia claim the Brazilian was testing a fully-automatic gearbox. A package of safety measures, including traction control, is due to be introduced at next year's Spanish Grand Prix, but speculation says Jordan was testing an auto 'box as a pre-emptive measure should the re-introduction of other driver aids be considered in the near future.

Pedro de la Rosa set the fastest Arrows-AMT time of the week as he split the Jordans and took third. The Spaniard's 1m15.188s lap was set despite a hydraulics problem curtailing his afternoon session early - his morning had already been cut short by an engine failure.

De la Rosa, who is shortly expected to be confirmed as part of Arrows' 2001 line-up, was pleased with the performance of the Peugeot-based AMT V10.

"We're already testing next year's engine and tyres," he said. "It's very good, but we're working our way through some reliability problems at the moment."


1 Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) 1m14.961s - 64 laps
2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1m15.049s - 75 laps
3 Pedro de la Rosa (Arrows-AMT) 1m15.188s - 65 laps
4 Ricardo Zonta (Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1m15.366s - 77 laps