Coulthard Breaks Valencia Track Record

The McLaren team continued their dominance at the Valencia circuit in Spain, where they topped the time sheets for the third consecutive day, this time with Scot David Coulthard, who broke the track record by more than a tenth of a second.

The McLaren driver replaced teammate Mika Hakkinen today at the wheel of the new Mercedes-powered MP4-16, completing 75 laps with a best time of 1:13.423, only two hundredths of a second quicker than test driver Alexander Wurz. Both McLaren drivers suffered mechanical problems during the day.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen set the third quickest time today, as the Jordan-Honda team joined the Valencia testing session, completing 63 laps with the EJ11.

Brazilian drivers Luciano Burti, driving the Jaguar R2, and Enrique Bernoldi, at the wheel of the Arrows A21 prototype, were fourh and fifth fastest, the former being the quickest of the two Michelin runners today. Bernoldi was the busiest driver today, completing 93 laps.

Italian Jarno Trulli was sixth fastest driving the second Jordan, ending the session in front of Sauber's Kimi Raikkonen, the Swiss team also joining today the seven-day session.

"I had a bit of a difficult day which began with a gearbox problem," Raikkonen said. "This lost me quite a lot of running time. This afternoon the session went well. However on the last lap, I spun the car and went into the tyre wall. The damage was not significant and we can keep to our schedule doing a race distance and more good work tomorrow and Wednesday.

The new Arrows A22 continued to struggle today with Jos Verstappen behind the wheel. The Dutch driver only completed 22 laps after a mechanical failure cut his running short. Nick Heidfeld was ninth quickest, while Eddie Irvine was once again slowest with the Jaguar.

Testing will resume tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time 1. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:13.423 2. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:13:443 3. Frentzen Jordan-Honda (B) 1:14.160 4. Burti Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:14.160 5. Bernoldi Arrows-Asiatech (B) 1:14.470 6. Trulli Jordan-Honda (B) 1:14.770 7. Raikkonen Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:15.640 8. Verstappen Arrows-Asiatech (B) 1:15.760 9. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:15.830 10. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:15.940 All Timing Unofficial