Barcelona test, day 3: DC fast; Schuey impressive

Coulthard set the fastest time of 1m21.23s in the morning, but Schumacher, who has not driven an F1 car since the final race of 2000 in Malaysia, did not post a timed lap outside the 1m21s bracket throughout his first day.

Schumacher finished the day in second spot, only 0.42s behind Coulthard, and set his fastest time of the day after only a handful of laps. The Prancing Horse's number one did not make it out onto the circuit until after lunch as mechanics checked over the sole F1-2000, following test driver Luca Badoer's high-speed crash on Sunday.

Coulthard had a trouble-free day save for a loose wheel nut during the morning session causing the Scot to stop out on the track. In contrast, McLaren test driver Alex Wurz's day was blighted by two engine failures.

The Austrian, using old tyres, was putting yet more miles on the 2001-spec Mercedes V10 and finished the day at the bottom of the time sheets.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen took third spot in the 2001 Jordan EJ11 and completed 35 laps. The German was just over half a second behind Coulthard, but brought out the red flags when he stopped out on the circuit with a continuation of suspected clutch problems.

Jean Alesi was also on hand in the new Prost, but only managed to complete 13 laps in the Ferrari-engined AP04 before running was halted by an oil leak in the Maranello-built customer V10.

"We haven't done many laps today," said Alesi, "but I'm very happy. The initial shake down at Magny-Cours last week went very well. Hopefully we can complete more laps tomorrow."

Pedro de la Rosa put on a good show for the Arrows top brass. Team boss Tom Walkinshaw and the owner of engine supplier AMT, John Garner, were both on hand to witness the Spaniard complete 64 untroubled laps and set the fourth fastest time. Testing continues tomorrow.



David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes, 1m21.23s 56
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 1m21.65s 46
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jordan-Honda (2001 car), 1m21.76s 35
Pedro de la Rosa, Arrows-AMT, 1m21.85s 64
Jean Alesi, Prost-Ferrari (2001 car), 1m22.42s 13
Alex Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes, 1m22.67s 21

All drivers on Bridgestone tyres bar Alesi