Barcelona test, day 6: Gene top but…

With McLaren en route for an exclusive test at Jerez and Ferrari back at Maranello to prepare for the team's launch on Monday, Gene assumed the role of best-of the-rest for the Williams-BMW team.

Gene was pushed hard by the 2001-spec Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, which finished the day in second place, but the Spaniard managed to claim the top spot despite stopping out on the circuit twice during the day with mechanical problems.

The Swiss Sauber team travelled to the Catalunya circuit straight from Wednesday's launch of its 2001 car in Hinwil and had two all-new C20s on hand for Heidfeld and his hotshoe team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen, in his first run in the new car, finished the day fourth fastest behind the Jordan-Honda of Jarno Trulli.

"We tried to get as much mileage on the new cars as possible today for both drivers," said Sauber's test team chief Jacky Eeckelaert. "Nick carried out some set-up work while Kimi concentrated on tyres."

Darren Manning took over the reins for BAR while race drivers Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve carried out launch duty in London. The Yorkshireman continued to work on solving the BAR003's understeer problem experienced by Panis yesterday and completed most laps of the day at 85.

Slowest of the day was the Arrows-AMT of surprise peddlar Enrique Bernoldi. The former Sauber test driver is tipped to be in line for a drive with the flagging Minardi squad, but with no real prospects of moving off the back of the grid for the Italian team, Bernoldi may opt for a test deal with Arrows.



Marc Gene*, Williams-BMW, 1m21.20s, 63 laps
Nick Heidfeld, Sauber-Petronas (2001 car) 1m21.23s, 12 laps
Jarno Trulli, Jordan-Honda (2001 car), 1m21.31s, 69 laps
Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber-Petronas (2001 car) 1m21.94s, 63 laps
Darren Manning*, BAR-Honda (2001 car), 1m22.34s, 85 laps
Enrique Bernoldi*, Arrows-AMT, 1m23.58s, 14 laps
*denotes test driver
N.B. All cars on Bridgestone bar Williams