Heidfeld flies in Jerez testing

Prost's new signing finished the day second overall, 0.8s slower than Coulthard, who was testing a number of components destined for McLaren's 2000 title challenger.

Heidfeld was 1.3s quicker than his experienced team-mate Jean Alesi, the reigning Formula 3000 champion improving his pace by 2s on the last day of the first F1 test since the enforced November lay-off ended.

Ralf Schumacher completed more laps than anyone else in the BMW-powered Williams but was 3.1s off the pace. The Jerez test was the first time that BMW had put themselves in a position to be directly compared with their F1 rivals. Although there were minor reliability problems on day one, the rest of the test ran smoothly, Schumacher completing the equivalent of a race distance yesterday.

'The test did fulfil our expectations,' said BMW Motorsport Director Gerhard Berger. 'We had incidents, but these will give us further important knowledge for our preparation programme.'

Times from day three of the Jerez test: