F1 testing AM: Heidfeld takes helm at Barcelona…

Heidfeld is switching from the beleaguered Prost team to Sauber for next year and on fresh 2001-spec rubber, the young German pipped Jordan's Jarno Trulli into second place - but the Italian was only 0.075s behind.

The top seven drivers running this morning were covered by just seven tenths of a second. Rubens Barrichello returned to take over the helm of the sole Ferrari F1-2000 from Luca Badoer, who ran yesterday (Monday), and the Brazilian narrowly took third place ahead of David Coulthard.

Jacques Villeneuve arrived at the circuit a day early and even though he was not due to test until Wednesday, Olivier Panis, who dominated yesterday's running, found himself with an unexpected day off after giving up his BAR 02 to the Canadian.

Villeneuve just managed to beat Panis' top time of 1m20.607s set on Monday, but the 1997 world champion spun on the circuit while trying, bringing out the red flags.

The session also came to a halt after Formula 1 rookie Kimi Raikkonen spun, but not before the young Finn had posted the seventh fastest time, just ahead of Antonio Pizzonia, who continues for the Arrows team after just half an hour's running on Monday.

"I like the car and think it's very good but I can still push more," said Pizzonia yesterday. "I had a small problem with the brake pedal being a bit too soft but we just kept going because we only had eight minutes left. I'm looking forward to the rest of the test."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen stopped out on the circuit due to suspected gearbox problems with the German's Jordan-Mugen Honda.

Simulated wet running is the order of the day for the Michelin-shod teams running at Estoril. The French tyre manufacturer is concentrating on the construction of its wet tyres and is using tankers to keep the Portuguese track sufficiently covered in water.

The going was slow during the morning session, with at least one car from Jaguar, Benetton and Williams taking a trip into the gravel. High winds necessitated frequent trips onto the circuit by the tankers.

Autosport.com will bring you a full round up of the day's testing action at the end of the day.


1 Nick Heidfeld (Sauber-Petronas) 1m20.132s
2 Jarno Trulli (Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1m20.207s
3 Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) 1m20.282s
4 David Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) 1m20.331s
5 Jacques Villeneuve (BAR-Honda) 1m20.474s
6 Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1m20.664s
7 Alex Wurz * (McLaren-Mercedes) 1m20.852s
8 Kimi Raikkonen (Sauber-Petronas) 1m21.045s
9 Antonio Pizzonia * (Arrows-AMT) 1m22.520s
10 Mark Hynes * (BAR-Honda) 1m24.158s 21