Ferrari Drivers on Top Despite Shunt - Day Ten

Ferrari drivers Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher finished on top of the timesheets on the tenth consecutive day of testing at the Barcelona circuit, despite both suffering heavy crashes which forced them to finish the session earlier than expected.

Both Schumacher and Barrichello lost control of their cars and crashed heavily against the tyre barriers of Turn 12 and Turn 9 respectively. The German driver could only complete 17 laps before his accident, while his Brazilian teammate did 39 to finish nearly half a second ahead of the World Champion.

The heavy damage to their cars forced the Italian squad to cancel their testing programme at Barcelona and traveled back to Fiorano, where both chassis will be inspected and repaired.

"I'm perfectly alright after the accident," said Schumacher. "What happened was that I made a mistake and lost control of the car. These things happen on a race track. Unfortunately, we cannot continue with the test, as Rubens also had a crash and there are no other cars available here in Barcelona."

German Nick Heidfeld was the fastest of the men driving a 2002 car, as the Sauber team continued to impress with their Ferrari-powered C21.

"This has been another very satisfying day and the C21 was working extremely well without any technical problems," said Heidfeld. "We managed to complete most of our planned programme, and you can see from the lap times that we are definitely moving in the right direction."

Spaniard Marc Gene, at the wheel of last year's Williams FW23, was the quickest of the Michelin runners, finishing ahead of Frenchman Olivier Panis in the BAR and German Ralf Schumacher in the new Williams FW24. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella joined the session today, working alongside teammate Takuma Sato and teenager Marcel Lasee.

The 19-year old German, who made his Formula One debut on Tuesday with the Jordan team, was impressive again at the wheel of the 2001-spec EJ11, being more than 1.5 seconds quicker than Japanese Sato, who drove the new Honda-powered EJ12 chassis.

Both Mika Salo and Allan McNish were working again for the Toyota team, with the Finn being the quickest of the two as they continued with the development of the TF102. Salo concentrated on testing different brake solutions, while McNish carried out some aerodynamic tests.

"We have been doing different brake comparisons in preparation for Australia because I know how difficult Melbourne is for brakes," said Salo. "In general we did a lot of laps today with no major problems."

At another venue in Spain, McLaren continued running a private testing session, at the Valencia circuit. The team did not release information or lap times from today's session, where both David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen continued the car's development program.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:18.096 39 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:18.552 17 3. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:18.749 86 4. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:19.171 21 5. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 1:19.182 77 6. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:19.266 84 7. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 1:20.109 26 8. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:20.312 62 9. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:20.344 27 10. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:20.379 82 11. Lassee Jordan-Honda (B) 1:20.531 38 12. Trulli Renault (M) 1:20.671 48 13. Button Renault (M) 1:20.831 38 14. Salo Toyota (M) 1:21.628 73 15. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 1:22.048 30 16. McNish Toyota (M) 1:22.090 47 All Timing Unofficial