Badoer Quickest at Barcelona - Day One

Italian test driver Luca Badoer set the fastest time on the first day of this week's testing at the Barcelona circuit, where all Formula One teams except Minardi are scheduled to carry out their preparations for the British Grand Prix next week.

The Italian Ferrari test driver, working at the wheel of the F2003-GA chassis, got back to work as the World Champions try to recover the lost ground to the Williams team, winners of the last two Grands Prix at the Nurburgring and Magny-Cours.

Badoer completed a massive 105 laps, almost two Grand Prix distances, and finished nearly four tenths of a second ahead of Williams' test driver Marc Gene, who was the busiest man today, completing one more lap than Badoer. Gene was the fastest of the two Williams cars on track, the other driven by young Estonian Marko Asmer.

Asmer, currently competing in the Renault V6 championship, had already made his debut with Williams when he carried out a straightline speed test at Vairano in Italy. Today, however, the 19-year old got his first proper test, covering a total of 98 laps to finish around 5.5 seconds off Gene's pace.

"Marc and Marko performed testing duties for the team with Marc spending the day on tyre development and evaluation, completing over 100 laps, whilst Marko concentrated on aero mapping, working under a speed limitation," said Williams' test team manager Tim Newton. "Marko completed 98 laps collating valuable aero data for the team."

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Brazilian Cristiano da Matta were the only racing drivers in action at Barcelona today, the Sauber man finishing ahead of the current CART champion at the wheel of the only Toyota TF103 on track.

"We were able to run the complete programme scheduled for today," explained Sauber's head engineer Jacky Eeckelaert. "We have tested some revised aerodynamic components in readiness for the Silverstone race whereby the best suitable front wing configuration according to the applying downforce level has been chosen.

"In addition we evaluated tyres on behalf of Bridgestone for Hockenheim and decided upon the tyre construction. Tomorrow we will conduct a race simulation of the C specification version of the Petronas engine, which has more horsepower than the B unit we are currently using. Apart from that further tyre tests for Hockenheim are planned for tomorrow."

The McLaren team began a crucial test with their new MP4-18 car that could decide whether the car is raced at the British Grand Prix, although team principal Ron Dennis said it was only an outside possibility.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa tested the new machine for the first time today, finishing as fifth fastest after 41 laps. Austrian test driver Alexander Wurz, meanwhile, completed only seven un-timed laps with the second MP4-18 chassis as the team said he was working on aborted race start procedures.

Testing at Barcelona continues tomorrow, when the Renault, Jaguar and BAR teams are expected to join.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:18.200 105 2. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:18.575 106 3. Frentzen Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:18.791 89 4. da Matta Toyota (B) 1:19.491 79 5. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:20.308 41 6. Asmer Williams-BMW (M) 1:24.082 98 7. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) no time 7 All Timing Unofficial

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