Barcelona, day 3: Barrichello on the pace

In bright sunshine and scorching 34 degree heat, the Brazilian set a best lap of 1m17.830s in his F2003-GA, going 0.198s faster than Spaniard Gene could in his Williams machine.

Barrichello spent the day working on Bridgestone tyre testing, whilst Gene completed development work on the construction of Michelin's tyres. However, the Ferrari ace didn't have an entirely perfect day, as he endured a brief spin when he slipped on oil dropped by Allan McNish's Renault.

Ralf Schumacher was third quickest, as he worked on fine-tuning the FW25's set-up for Silverstone. His namesake Ralph Firman was an impressive fourth quickest for Jordan, despite only completing 61 laps because of front suspension trouble.

Olivier Panis was fifth quickest for Toyota. Having completed tyre and set-up work in the morning, the Frenchman ran a revised aerodynamic package on the TF103 in the afternoon. The package featured a new front and rear wing, revised bodywork and diffuser, and looked somewhat Ferrari-esque around the gearbox - not entirely surprising, given that a group of ex-Ferrari staff were responsible for the revisions.

The travails of the McLaren team continued. Kimi Raikkonen was sixth fastest in an MP4-17D, although he lost an hour of running when his Mercedes engine blew. David Coulthard and Alex Wurz continued to struggle in the MP4-18, and were the two slowest runners of the day. Coulthard completed only 45 laps of the track, but got off lucky compared to Alex Wurz, who managed only 7 all day.

Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m17.830s 101
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m18.022s 125
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m18.414s 95
Ralph Firman Jordan-Ford B 1m18.426s 61
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m18.672s 83
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m18.726s 108*
Mark Webber Jaguar M 1m18.788s 104
Takuma Sato BAR-Honda B 1m19.340s 47
Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m19.489s 101
Jenson Button BAR-Honda B 1m19.528s 90
Allan McNish Renault M 1m19.867s 98
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m20.028s 100
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m20.078s 45*
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m28.486s 7*

* Raikkonen in MP4-17D, Coulthard and Wurz in MP4-18


Michael Schumacher was in action for Ferrari at Mugello today, conducting electronics and tyre testing for Ferrari. The German completed 85 laps of the Italian track, with a best time of 1m21.942s.

Schumacher also completed 20 laps in the works ETCC Alfa Romeo 156 normally driven by Gabriele Tarquini. His best time in the touring car was 2m02.76s.