Ferrari Duo Quickest Again at Barcelona - Day Four

Ferrari's World Champion Michael Schumacher finished on top of the timesheets on the fourth consecutive day of testing at the Barcelona circuit, completing another dominant session for the Italian squad.

German Schumacher, also fastest on Tuesday, posted a quickest lap of 1:15.103 today, only 83 thousands of a second off the track record, set by himself earlier this year. Brazilian Rubens Barrichello completed another good day for the World Champions, setting the second fastest time some three tenths behind his German teammate.

This was the final day of testing for Ferrari, who will unveil their new car next Friday at Maranello.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished just over a second off Schumacher's pace with the first of the 2003 cars on track today. The Sauber driver continued with the aerodynamic testing programme kicked off by teammate Nick Heidfeld, who today carried out straightline testing at Lurcy-Levis. Frentzen has a productive day, completing a total of 111 laps around the Spanish circuit.

"I'm pleased with what we did today. It was a good test," said Frentzen. "We learned a lot more about the aerodynamic set-up and worked with Bridgestone to provide the data on which it will base its choice of tyre for Melbourne. I'm encouraged that we have now added speed to the C22's inherent reliability."

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya continued with the development of the new FW25 chassis, finishing as fourth quickest after setting the best time of the week with the new car. Frenchman Olivier Panis was again the only man on track for the Toyota team, and he continued to put more miles on the new TF103, finishing in fifth ahead of Williams tester Marc Gene.

"We had a good end to an encouraging week here in Barcelona today," admitted Panis at the end of the day. "I am very happy with what I have personally achieved over two days. We almost completed our tyre programme, which has been very important.

"We had a mechanical problem at the end of the session today, which meant we had to stop earlier than scheduled, but the consistency and balance of the TF103 have been very good this week."

Scot David Coulthard and Finn Kimi Raikkonen got back to work today, both men working at the wheel of the McLaren MP4-17 the Woking-based outfit will use in the first races of the 2003 season. Both men completed few laps and finished near the bottom of the timesheets, only outpacing Jaguar's Mark Webber.

McLaren will be the only team in action at Barcelona tomorrow and on Friday, testing behind closed doors.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:15.103 105 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:15.408 54 3. Frentzen Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:16.336 111 4. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.630 71 5. Panis Toyota (M) 1:16.915 61 6. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.234 74 7. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.293 30 8. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.985 40 9. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.667 27 All Timing Unofficial

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