Barcelona, day 4am: Rubens on top
There was a familiar look to the top of the timesheets in testing at Barcelona this morning (Friday) with the Ferraris setting the pace yet again. On low fuel Rubens Barrichello set the benchmark time, a lap of 1m18.256s, just fractions away from last year's pole
Michael Schumacher was second quickest, half a second further back, while another driver to go for a qualifying run, Olivier Panis, was third fastest, albeit over a second behind Barrichello.
Once again Luca Badoer clocked up the miles on the 2001 Ferrari, while Pedro de la Rosa was back in the 2002 Jaguar R3. The Spaniard brought one of the session's two red flags, but his lap of 1m19.842s was still quicker than Eddie Irvine managed in last year's R2.
The other driver to bring the session to a halt was David Coulthard, whose McLaren stopped on track. The Scot was back in ninth place in the times, while test driver Alex Wurz was 15th and last after a stop/start programme.
The Williams of Marc Gene and Ralf Schumacher were evenly matched, with the Spaniard just one thousandth quicker than the Malaysian GP winner in a 2001-spec car. Both Mika Salo and Jenson Button suffered electrical woes, while Giancarlo Fisichella was far from happy with the balance of his Jordan and was a lowly 13th fastest.
Testing continues this afternoon.
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m18.256s 43
Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 1m18.747s 21
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda B 1m19.452s 60
Luca Badoer Ferrari* B 1m19.838s 32
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m19.842s 36
Marc Gene Williams-BMW* M 1m19.871s 79
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m19.872s 37
Eddie Irvine Jaguar* M 1m19.886s 51
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.916s 24
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda B 1m20.314s 51
Mika Salo Toyota M 1m20.527s 26
Jenson Button Renault M 1m20.935s 19
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda B 1m21.262s 32
Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m21.357s 36
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes* M 1m21.581s 26
M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2001 car
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