Schumacher sets searing pace in South Africa

The Williams duo lapped within a fraction of a second of each other, setting the quickest times yet seen at the venue. Schumacher, however, was more pleased with the endurance run he did in the morning, which meant he had a new engine installed for the afternoon (the old one had reached its mileage limit) when he set the quick time.

"We completed a race distance on the engine," he said. "We managed a trouble-free simulation - most of which was focused around temperatures."

Montoya who, like Schumacher, had a new engine installed during the day, said: "I'm pleased with the lap times I achieved after some good set-up work from the team."

The Williams pairing gave Michelin's competitions boss Pascal Dupasquier renewed hope for the coming season, as Kyalami's hot temperatures - it was over 28-degrees there today - should be reflected at Melbourne in March.

"I'm very happy with the degradation of the tyres," he said. "It is within the parameters of what we expected."

British American Racing's Jacques Villeneuve concentrated solely on race distance running today, and was over 1.5secs slower than the Williams duo after completing well over 100 laps.

Kyalami has attracted a staggering 105,000 spectators to watch the three cars over the last five days, all of whom had to pay to get in. One man who didn't have to part with folding, however, was the FIA's technical delegate, Charlie Whiting, who was also present to oversee the test.

In Italy, meanwhile, Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello drove one of last year's cars as part of the Prancing Horse's electronics programme. He made nine practice starts, most likely to test a launch control system which should be legal from the Spanish GP onwards. He also completed eight practice pit stops to keep the mechanics on their toes as the first Grand Prix of the season approaches, as well as 52 laps with a quickest time of 1m01.077s.

Barrichello will return to Mugello tomorrow to continue the development of the F2001. Luca Badoer, the team's test driver, has been given the all-clear to resume his duties in the F1-2000 at Fiorano tomorrow.

Finally, Jenson Button managed to get some decent mileage behind the wheel of Benetton's new Renault-powered B201 at Estoril in Portugal. Lapping on his own now that team mate Giancarlo Fisichella has gone home, he completed 48 trouble-free laps and concentrated on set-up work, setting a best time of 1m21.097s.


1 Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW (2001) 1m19.517s, 83
2 Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW (2001) 1m19.526s, 60
3 Jacques Villeneuve, BAR-Honda (2001) 1m21.184s, 109