Barcelona day 1: Pizzonia pips Wurz
Formula 1 new boy Antonio Pizzonia laid down the gauntlet on behalf of his Williams team on the first day of Formula 1 testing as the Brazilian test driver topped the times ahead of the McLaren drivers Alex Wurz and David Coulthard
Pizzonia made his intentions clear from the off. The Formula 3000 ace, who is set to race with the Petrobras squad this year, was the pacesetter from midday onwards and improved his time towards the end of the day to ensure he would not be toppled.
While the 21-year-old worked on various tyre compounds for Michelin, team mates Ralf Schumacher (fourth) and Marc Gene (fifth) concentrated on putting miles on BMW's new V10 engine.
McLaren tester Wurz had the measure of race driver Coulthard, the Austrian taking the second spot almost half a second ahead of the Scotsman, as the pair got to grips with Michelin rubber for the first time.
Best of the rest behind the Williams and McLarens was Jaguar Racing number one Eddie Irvine, who is due to get his first taste of the all-new R3 tomorrow (Tuesday).
Close behind the Ulsterman in seventh place was British American Racing's test driver Anthony Davidson, who suffered problems with his BAR003's traction control system in the morning, but came back in the afternoon to finish ahead of team mate Olivier Panis, who drove the only 2002-spec car. Davidson was pleased with his performance and experienced no repercussions from his neck injury sustained during a practice accident at Macau last November.
"I was of course a bit nervous having not driven on this track before and having not driven an F1 car since Mugello last year," said the former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Young Driver Award winner. "But after a few laps, it felt great."
Testing continues tomorrow (Tuesday) which promises to be a day of firsts, with new Ferrari test driver Luciano Burti getting back behind the wheel of an F1 car for the first time since his massive accident at last year's Belgian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen is set to get his first run with McLaren and F1 newcomer Toyota is also set to join the fray.
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m20.033s 66 laps
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m20.088s 45 laps
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m20.566s 65 laps
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m20.585s 32 laps
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m21.137s 54 laps
Eddie Irvine Jaguar M 1m21.316s 47 laps
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda B 1m21.617s 33 laps
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda B 1m21.914s 22 laps (2002 car)
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m23.319s 31 laps
M - Michelin
B - Bridgestone
Share Or Save This Story
MotoGP British GP: Bezzecchi leads Aprilia domination in Friday practice
FIA wants F1 cars to lose another 80kg under next rules overhaul
KTM allowed to fix faulty MotoGP engine after U-turn from rivals
How a Le Mans winner is changing the game for female racing in Japan
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments