Barcelona, day 1: Wurz fastest

The rain in Spain eventually eased off and for the final few hours dry-weather tyres were the order of the day. McLaren test driver Alex Wurz used these to the greatest effect, setting the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1m19.229s. The Austrian also covered more laps than anyone else, managing 80 tours of the track during a session that was only interrupted once.

The sole red flag came out in mid-afternoon when Williams tester Antonio Pizzonia suffered an engine failure in his FW24 and had to be towed back to the pits. The team did a great job to change the engine in time for the Brazilian to get back out on track for the final hour of the session. He went on to set the second quickest time of the day, three tenths down on Wurz.

Only McLaren and Williams ran cars today, but both had two drivers on hand. Darren Turner had a rare outing for McLaren, and managed 42 laps.

Marc Gene covered even fewer miles for Williams. The Spaniard only ran during the afternoon and completed just 26 circuits and unsurprisingly propped up the timesheets.

Ferrari kicked off this week's test programme at Mugello in Italy. Luca Badoer and Luciano Burti worked on tyres and electronics, driving a pair of F2002s. Burti also drove an F2001. Badoer managed 79 laps, managing a best time of 1m23.257s. Burti did 41 laps in the F2002, managing a 1m24.775s. He did 29 laps in the F2001 with a best of 1m26.551s. Both drivers will continue testing at the track tomorrow.


Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.229s 80
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m19.578s 76
Darren Turner McLaren-Mercedes M 1m22.033s 42
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m23.664s 26

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone