Valencia, day 1: McLaren tops
McLaren-Mercedes has left one of its big rivals for 2002, Williams-BMW, firmly in the shade on the opening day of testing at Valencia in Spain today (Wednesday)
McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz lapped in 1m12.569s, almost a second quicker than Williams' race driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who lapped in 1m13.468s. David Coulthard's McLaren was also quicker than the Colombian, albeit by just 0.052s.
Williams' tester, Marc Gene, was the slowest of the four drivers, just under half a second off Montoya's best. All the times were much slower than last week, when McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen set a new lap record of 1m10.93s.
"The objective of today was to run the FW24 to evaluate brake and aero components," said Williams race engineer Tim Preston. "It looks like we've made a positive step forward but the test was delayed after JPM had a minor off. Both cars will be prepared tonight for endurance runs tomorrow (Thursday)."
Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes B 1m12.569s 67
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes B 1m13.416s 28
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m13.468s 43
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m13.904s 44
M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
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