Monza test, day 4: Irvine stays on top

The Ulsterman ran with a very sticky Michelin compound and little fuel in his R2 and stopped the clocks at 1m24.53s around the Italian circuit, 0.33s ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams-BMW in second place.

With the teams winding down their efforts on the final day of four, the number of laps completed was less than on previous days, all except for Mika Hakkinen, who completed 92 tours in his McLaren-Mercedes and finished the day third.

Ricardo Zonta finished what has been a successful week for the Jordan team, albeit with a few glitches. Jarno Trulli's rear wing fell off on Wednesday and Zonta's Honda engine went bang on the pit straight today (Friday), but not before the Brazilian had a set a time of 1m24.99s, which was good enough for fourth spot.

"We've done lots of work this week," said Zonta. "The car has been a lot better and really good, both in terms of handling and set-up."

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was supposed to be completing a long run with the Maranello team's qualifying engine, but the Brazilian had to complete team mate Michael Schumacher's workload of tyre testing, due to the German's absence after his high-speed shunt on Tuesday. The Ferrari number two finished the day in fifth place.

Pedro de la Rosa was sixth in the second Jaguar, ahead of McLaren test driver Alex Wurz in seventh. Jacques Villeneuve was next up and the Canadian was 1.3s behind pacesetter Irvine and decided to call it a day when he stalled his BAR-Honda in the pitlane, 15 minutes before the end of the afternoon session.

Engine trouble continued to blight the Williams team and test driver Marc Gene caused three red flags during the day, after stopping out on the track due to problems with his BMW V10. The Spaniard was trying out a new exhaust configuration on his FW23 and finished just ahead of Jenson Button's Benetton in 10th and last place.

Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer's running at Fiorano was thwarted by early drizzle at the Maranello team's private track. The Italian managed 80 laps with a best time of 1m00.037s and continued with development of the F2001's electronic systems.


Eddie Irvine, Jaguar M, 1m24.53s 69 laps
Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW M, 1m24.89, 49 laps
Mika Hakkinen, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m24.94s, 92 laps
Ricardo Zonta, Jordan-Honda B, 1m24.99s, 67 laps
Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari B, 1m25.50, 81 laps
Pedro de la Rosa, Jaguar M, 1m25.51s 54 laps
Alex Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m25.65s, 58 laps
Jacques Villeneuve, BAR-Honda B, 1m25.83s, 76 laps
Marc Gene, Williams-BMW M, 1m25.93s, 51 laps
Jenson Button, Benetton-Renault M, 1m26.29s, 34 laps