Barcelona test, day 3: Schu shows who's boss

In his Ferrari F2001, the world champion finished almost three quarters of a second ahead of BAR's Olivier Panis, who managed to grab second spot despite a broken water pipe causing his Honda V10 to overheat. Schumacher too, experienced engine problems, but not until the end of the day and not before he had completed 71 laps of preparation for next month's Spanish Grand Prix.

"It has been a good day," said Schumacher. "I've been working on set-up and tyre development, because we have to decide which compound to use for the Spanish GP, because we won't test here again before then."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen continued an impressive run in his Jordan and finished third, but the German also experienced engine trouble. His Honda unit blew in dramatic fashion five minutes before the end of the morning session and just before team mate Jarno Trulli was due to take over for the afternoon. The Italian went on to set the seventh fastest time after a new engine had been installed in the sole EJ11.

Schumacher's McLaren rivals finished with Mika Hakkinen in fourth place and David Coulthard, who currently lies equal second in the drivers' standings, in a lowly ninth. Both were driving 2000-spec cars and spent time developing a new rear suspension set-up, which is to be used at the next round in Brazil.

Eddie Irvine managed to secure a creditable fifth place, ahead of Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer. The Ulsterman's Jaguar was the highest placed Michelin-shod car. The French tyre manufacturer supplied a brand new compound today (Thursday) which is set to be used at the Spanish round of the world championship on April 29.

After a scintillating drive at last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, Jos Verstappen carried out development work in his Arrows A22 and finished eighth, while Jaguar tester Pedro de la Rosa rounded out the top 10 behind Coulthard.

Team mates at Williams last year, Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button finished in penultimate and last place respectively. While the reason for Schumacher's lack of speed is more temporary - Ralf was suffering from a severe bout of flu - Button's is slightly more longer lasting as the young Brit continued to struggle with his recalcitrant Benetton, almost three seconds off the pace.


Michael Schumacher, Ferrari (2001) B, 1m20.030s, 71 laps
Olivier Panis, BAR-Honda (2001) B, 1m20.775s, 49 laps
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jordan-Honda (2001) B, 1m20.963s, 37 laps
Mika Hakkinen, McLaren-Mercedes (2000) B, 1m20.973s, 83 laps
Eddie Irvine, Jaguar (2001) M, 1m20.983s, 100 laps
Luca Badoer, Ferrari (2000) B, 1m21.037s, 59 laps
Jarno Trulli, Jordan-Honda (2001) B, 1m21.629s, 38 laps
Jos Verstappen, Arrows-AMT (2001) B, 1m21.864s, 45 laps
David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes (2000) B, 1m21.864s, 59 laps
Pedro de la Rosa, Arrows-AMT (2001) B, 1m21.875s, 54 laps
Jacques Villeneuve, BAR-Honda (2001) B, 1m21.975s, 52 laps
Marc Gene, Williams-BMW (2000) M, 1m22.080s, 51 laps
Mark Webber, Benetton-Renault (2000) M, 1m22.137s, 62 laps
Oriol Servia, Prost-Acer (2001) M, 1m22.150s, 51 laps
Enrique Bernoldi, Arrows-AMT (2000) B, 1m22.240s, 79 laps
Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW (2001) M, 1m22.276s, 33 laps
Jenson Button, Benetton-Renault (2001) M, 1m25.359s, 13 laps
Monk de Wally de Honk, Vanwall (1955) E, 2m36.211s, 45 laps
M - Michelin
B - Bridgestone
E - Engelbert