Jerez, day 2: Raikkonen's record run
McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen smashed the track record at Jerez in the second day of testing at the Spanish track. The Finn established a mark of 1m19.235s, knocking almost two seconds off the previous best held by Mika Hakkinen
Raikkonen spent most of the day working on development Michelin tyres and his record run was set during a one lap 'qualifying' effort. He was 1.5s quicker than the next fastest man, Mika Salo. The Toyota driver was suffering with a heavy cold and only managed 39 laps, about half the amount of most of the other runners.
Pedro de la Rosa was third quickest as he tried new suspension pieces for Jaguar. Renault's Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli were fourth and fifth, although both drivers brought out the red flag in separate incidents.
Alonso spun and stalled, suspiciously just before the beginning of the Spain-South Africa World Cup match, and Renault was also the only team in the paddock with a TV showing the game... Trulli's test was brought to a premature end after its engine blew.
All of the five fastest times were 'one lap wonders', which made Alex Wurz's sixth best lap particularly impressive. The Austrian did a race simulation for McLaren as he evaluated suspension settings. His best lap came towards the end of a long run when he recorded a time of 1m21.411s.
Williams' tester Marc Gene also did a race distance and was just fractions slower than Wurz. Luciano Burti was in action for Ferrari in one of the F2001s the team started the season with. The Brazilian did 93 laps, concentrating on tyre testing for Bridgestone.
Patrick Lemarie and Anthony Davidson drove for BAR, who were giving the experimental 'Athena' chassis a run out for Honda. Former Jaguar man Mark Ellis was in charge of the test team for the first time since returning to BAR. The team focussed on testing the car's unique electronics, although Davidson only ran for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.235s 75
Mika Salo Toyota M 1m20.784s 39
Pedro de la Rosa M Jaguar 1m20.909s 71
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m21.259s 66
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m21.390s 71
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m21.411s 95
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m21.448s 107
Luciano Burti Ferrari* B 1m21.641s 93
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda* B 1m22.650s 21
Patrick Lemarie BAR-Honda* B 1m23.231s 55
M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2001 car
Share Or Save This Story
What F1 history tells us about three-way title deciders
On this day: Raikkonen’s Suzuka masterclass
The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari
McLaren junior leads the way in British F4 as BTCC support series begin at Donington Park
How the BTCC opener provided a throwback and a new headache
Why the WEC's BoP blackout is a bad call for all parties
Are F1's technical changes for Miami enough to ease 2026 concerns?
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments