Monza test, day 4: Go Kimi go

A Sauber driver was second fastest on every day of the four-day test except today (Friday), with Heidfeld behind the wheel on Tuesday and Wednesday and Raikkonen taking over for the final two. And it was the young Finn who made the step up to the top slot, albeit at the end of the day with fresh tyres and a low fuel level.

Mika Hakkinen was set to pose the main threat at the top of the time sheets, but the McLaren ace, in keeping with the rest of his season, had a typically bad day.

The Finn finished in fifth place after he suffered an engine failure in the morning session and then spun on the approach to the first chicane in the afternoon, damaging his MP4-16 and bringing his day to an early close.

McLaren test driver Alex Wurz kept the Woking-based team's end up by finishing the day in third place after Lotterer put in an impressive performance to take second, although he too had fresh rubber and a light fuel load.

Jarno Trulli completed a tyre evaluation programme for Bridgestone and finished in fourth place for Jordan, while the Silverstone-based team's test driver Ricardo Zonta had a slightly less successful day. The Brazilian wound up seventh after his Honda engine came to an abrupt stop, pitching him into a spin at the, by now, notorious first chicane and bringing out the red flags.

Olivier Panis brought up the rear for the British American Racing team after spending the day testing new dampers. The Frenchman had tried the new components at Mugello on Thursday to great effect and brought them with him to try at Monza with slightly less success.

"The results with the dampers are inconclusive after this test," said Panis. "We definitely need more mileage with them and I doubt we will use them for the British grand Prix."


Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber-Petronas B, 1m23.58s, 66 laps
Andre Lotterer, Jaguar M, 1m24.70s, 76 laps
Alex Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m24.73s, 28 laps
Jarno Trulli, Jordan-Honda B, 1m24.90s, 41 laps
Mika Hakkinen, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m25.06s, 31 laps
Ricardo Zonta, Jordan-Honda B, 1m25.09s, 83 laps
Pedro de la Rosa, Jaguar M, 1m25.16s, 48 laps
Darren Manning, BAR-Honda B, 1m25.50s, 50 laps