Barcelona, day 3: DC shines
The third day of testing at Barcelona was blessed with the warmest weather so far this week, but it was during the cooler hours of the morning that McLaren's David Coulthard set the fastest lap of the day
Coulthard was using a McLaren MP4-17 fitted with some revised rear suspension pieces and lapped the Circuit de Catalunya in 1m17.432s, comfortably quicker than his rivals, but half a second shy of Wurz's Wednesday best.
Darren Turner had a quiet day in the second McLaren, covering just 13 laps. He left his best lap until late in the afternoon, but vaulted up into second with a final effort of 1m18.277s.
In contrast, Jacques Villeneuve was much busier and completed 88 tours of Bridgestone tyre testing for BAR. He was just quicker than Ralf Schumacher, who was forced to change from the Williams development car to the standard version after it developed a problem in the morning.
Marc Gene only ran in the morning before handing his car over to Schumacher. Fellow Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa also only did half a day as the sole Jaguar R3 was slated for Antonio Pizzonia's first test for the team.
He was forced to wait for his chance in the car after its engine blew during de la Rosa's last run, but the team did a good job to get him a couple of hours worth of running in the afternoon and the Brazilian got within three tenths of the Spaniard's time.
The on-looking Niki Lauda was apparently quietly impressed and it will be interesting to see how Pizzonia goes in the car tomorrow.
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m17.432 88
Darren Turner McLaren-Mercedes M 1m18.277s 13
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m18.827s 88
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m18.889s 73
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m19.116s 19
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m19.231s 16
Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar M 1m19.596s
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