Barcelona test, day 10: Alesi stuns with top time

Alesi was driving the all-new Ferrari-powered AP04, which arrived at the Circuit de Catalunya on Saturday after a two-day shakedown at Magny-Cours last week.

With his car in qualifying spec, the 36-year old set a blistering lap of 1m18.987s just 12 minutes before the end of the session, but put much of the car's performance down to the tyres.

"At the moment we're working really well with Michelin," said Alesi. "Last year Bridgestone worked very closely with McLaren and Ferrari so other teams suffered. I'm not saying I wasn't happy with Bridgestone, but it's just great to have the attention. Because Michelin are new to F1 they want as much data as possible and so they are working closely with all the teams."

Giancarlo Fisichella finished the day in second place driving an interim Benetton-Renault B200, with Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya 0.6s behind in third. Montoya was conducting a tyre development programme for Michelin, but brought out the red flags after leaving the track at the final corner and ending up in the tyre wall.

The man who replaces Jenson Button at Williams escaped unhurt and continued running later in the afternoon after repairs. Montoya said: "I made a bit of a mistake and it was my fault, but everything is ok."

Jos Verstappen, who took fifth spot, spent his last day in the Arrows-AMT before Pedro de la Rosa takes over tomorrow. Eddie Irvine finished in sixth place overall and second of the 2001 cars for Jaguar Racing.

The Ulsterman was working on tyre development for Michelin, but finished running at lunchtime allowing test driver Tomas Scheckter to have his first run in the second R2.

The young South African completed 21 laps of acclimatisation in the new car and finished in last place behind Irvine's team mate Luciano Burti. The Brazilian moves up to the race team after spending last year as the Big Cat's tester and spent much of today (Tuesday) practising pitstops, with a full squad of mechanics and an empty fuel rig.



Jean Alesi, Prost-Ferrari M, 1m18.987s, 95 laps
Giancarlo Fisichella, Benetton-Renault M, 1m19.857s, 113 laps
Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW M (2000 car), 1m20.425s, 70 laps
Jenson Button, Benetton-Renault M, 1m20.906s, 62 laps
Jos Verstappen, Arrows-AMT B, 1m21.150s, 50 laps
Eddie Irvine, Jaguar M, 1m21.454s, 42 laps
Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW M, 1m21.527s, 43 laps
Luciano Burti, Jaguar M, 1m22.718s, 38 laps
Tomas Scheckter, Jaguar M, 1m24.858s, 21 laps

M - Michelin
B - Bridgestone