Barcelona day 1: Fisichella's boost

Giancarlo Fisichella gave Benetton, Renault and Michelin an early boost to its 2001 campaign by eclipsing Michael Schumacher's pole time for this year's Spanish Grand Prix in testing today

The Italian whirled round Barcelona in 1m20.877s, according to unofficial timing, which compares to the 1m20.974s set by Schumacher's Ferrari in qualifying for this season's race. The temperature at Barcelona was cooler today than for Spanish GP qualifying - which would help Fisichella go faster - but the air temperature did get up to 20-degrees in the afternoon today.

Fisichella didn't have a troublefree day, however. He damaged the bottom of his B200 chassis - which is in 2000 specification - when he slid over a kerb, which required a stoppage to repair.

Like everyone else at the test, Fisichella was using Michelin's new F1 tyres. A spokesman for the French rubber manufacturer said: "It's encouraging, and shows we're not a million miles away, but we know we've still got a lot things to do."

Ralf Schumacher was second for Williams-BMW, almost six-tenths slower than Fisichella but over a second clear of new team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya.

"I spent the day working on tyre development and we successfully completed our job list for today," said Ralf. "Together with Michelin, we have addressed several areas and we are pleased with the results."

Eddie Irvine's Jaguar showed pace in the morning, but technical problems restricted his running in the afternoon. His 1m21.802s was seven-tenths quicker than team-mate Luciano Burti, who also failed to complete many laps after lunch.

Jenson Button was fourth quickest as he settles down to life at Benetton, but a problem with his Renault engine required the unit to be changed. The Englishman was 0.6s ahead of his replacement at BMW Williams Juan Pablo Montoya, who was sixth fastest.

"Comparing myself with Ralf, it seems that I'm losing a little time through the faster corners, but I'm in no rush to take everything flat!" said Montoya. "I shall continue applying myself in a steady step-by-step manner."

Montoya was just a few hundredths quicker than Williams's test driver Marc Gene. Jean Alesi lapped in 1m23.666s, almost two seconds off Fisichella's pace on Prost's first taste of Michelin tyres.

1 Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton-Renault) 1m20.877s
2 Ralf Schumacher (Williams-BMW) 1m21.416s
3 Eddie Irvine (Jaguar) 1m21.802s
4 Jenson Button (Benetton-Renault) 1m22.197s
5 Luciano Burti (Jaguar) 1m22.588s
6 Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW) 1m22.730s
7 Marc Gene (Williams-BMW) 1m22.780s
8 Jean Alesi (Prost-Peugeot) 1m23.666s