Panis stars for BAR, then wanes

Panis, whose place in British American Racing's line up is in doubt for 2003, was the only driver who split the Ferraris for a time in the first hour-long session. He ended that third quickest overall, but slumped to 12th later on when his gearbox broke.

"I'm generally very pleased with the way things have gone for me today," said Panis. "The balance was good and I was happy with the car from the first lap, so I was able to post consistently quick times. It was a real shame that we had a gearbox problem in the second session because I was quite confident that I could have continued to improve."

Despite his reduction in track time, Panis remains upbeat about the rest of the weekend.

"I didn't get the chance to do a back-to-back with the second tyre," he added. "Of course, we have Jacques' data to look at, but every driver prefers to do his own back-to-back. Despite this problem though, I was still 12th at the end of the session so I'm feeling quite optimistic for tomorrow."