Hakkinen Back on Top at Valencia - Day Two

Former World Champion Mika Hakkinen, who returned to work on Monday after a nearly three-month long break, set the fastest time on the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

The day began with less than ideal conditions as the circuit was damp for most of the morning, but the situation gradually improved allowing the teams to move on to grooved tyres about 90 minutes before lunch and the rest of the day remained sunny.

Hakkinen, driving the interim McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15K on Bridgestone tyres, was more than six tenths of a second quicker than the team's test driver Alex Wurz.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya continued to run on fine form setting the third quickest time of the day at a track he hadn't been before this test.

Montoya, fastest of the Michelin users, forced the session to be red-flagged for the first time due to mechanical problems in his Williams-BMW, while Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella caused the second stoppage after running off the track during the afternoon.

Eddie Irvine was fourth quickest with the Jaguar R1B, the Ulsterman getting on with the tyre testing programme started yesterday and ending the day as the second fastest Michelin runner.

Arrows' Jos Verstappen, fastest on the first day, could not repeat his performance and was seventh quickest behind Ralf Schumacher in the second Williams and in front of Marc Gene.

Schumacher suffered an engine failure which cut his running time short. He switched cars in the afternonn but it was too late to do longs runs.

Briton Jenson Button, who completed only four laps on Monday, was two seconds slower than Hakkinen and only faster than Luciano Burti, who completed a race distance with the Jaguar R2.

Testing at Valencia will continue on Wednesday.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time 1. Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:14.65 2. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.18 3. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.19 4. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:16.21 5. Fisichella Benetton-Renault (M) 1:16.32 6. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.32 7. Verstappen Arrows-AMT (B) 1:16.34 8. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.44 9. Button Benetton-Renault (M) 1:16.71 10. Burti Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:17.17 All Timing Unofficial