Barcelona day 2: Pedro flies again
McLaren regular David Coulthard was pipped to the post by F1 gun-for-hire Pedro de la Rosa, in spring-like conditions at the Barcelona test today. Rumours that the Catalan may be in line for a full-time test drive with McLaren will have been strengthened by his performance, which was barely 0.5s off the lap record set by Michael Schumacher and 0.6s ahead of Coulthard
"I have never been in 1m15s here in my life," Pedro told autosport.com. "The best time I did was 1m18s or something in a Jaguar. It is so easy to drive and impossible to crash this car. The team is so organised and so well prepared, it does make me think what I have been driving before. It is a very competitive car and I don't know what is going to happen but I would love to get more opportunities (to drive) in the future."
DC completed twice the number of laps to the ex-Jaguar driver's 31, despite suffering another electrical problem and bringing out the red flags. However, he appeared genuinely happy afterwards with the ongoing testing of MP4-18 parts on last year's car.
"The car has matured nicely," said Coulthard, "but we have to keep working on the reliability. In terms of performance, a lot depends on tyres and our working relationship with Michelin has never been better, and this evolution (of the car) seems to work the tyres better as there is less graining. I am still not entirely at one with it though, and it is possible to be, it is something I have felt in the past."
Similar feats of giant killing were going on down the order, Marc Gene went quicker than Juan Pablo Montoya for Williams, albeit by just over 0.2s, while Ferrari's Luca Badoa kept Jenson Button between him and Rubens Barrichello. Both Ferrari drivers were out in versions of last year's car.
The gold star for effort went to Button who completed a full race distance (107 laps) in the hazy sunshine at the Catalunyan circuit. "I have done a lot of laps today," he said, "mainly tyre testing for Brazil and a bit for Imola. It has been reasonable but we have a lot more work to do tomorrow." Jenson will be back behind the wheel in the morning with Jacques Villeneuve taking over in the afternoon.
Finally, the least experienced F1 driver ran ahead of one of the most experienced at the foot of the timesheets - Toyota's Cristiano da Matta kept a respectable 1.0s ahead of Sauber's Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes M 1m15.506s 31 laps
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m16.132s 65
Marc Gene WilliamsF1 BMW M 1m16.144s 85
Juan Pablo Montoya WilliamsF1 BMW M 1m16.373s 73
Luca Badoer Ferrari B 1m17.571s 65
Jenson Button BAR Honda B 1m17.734s 107
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m17.964s 87
Cristiano da Matta Toyota M 1m18.157s 73
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber Petronas B 1m19.105s 89
B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin
* denotes 2003 car
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