Massa kicks off 'F1 hopefuls' test

Massa had his maiden outing in an F1 car in the week after the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago and impressed enough to get asked back again.

The young Brazilian, who won this year's Euro F3000 Championship, completed 51 laps of the Mugello track and set a best time of 1m26.11s. Although he was almost 2.5s slower than his best lap from two weeks ago, he continued to acclimatise quickly to the extra power and downforce of F1 machinery.

The only blot on the 20-year-old's copy book was a spin late in the day, which was caused by some kind of mechanical seizure. Massa's C20 ended up embedded in the gravel and marshals spent 25 minutes retrieving the car, which was then returned to the pits. Hydraulic fluid was leaking from the car's undertray and the Hinwil-based team decided to call it a day.

Massa will be joined tomorrow (Wednesday) by the Jordan team, which will be fielding a brace of EJ11s for Jean Alesi to complete back-to-back tests on Wednesday, followed by F1 hopefuls Justin Wilson and Narain Karthikeyan on Thursday and Friday. Honda stable mates BAR will also be present with Darren Manning and Anthony Davidson.

Luca Badoer was back in action for the Ferrari team at Fiorano with the Italian test driver concentrating on development work for the Maranello team's 2002 car. Badoer had two F2001s at his disposal and completed 120 laps, with a best time of 59.312s. He will be joined tomorrow (Wednesday) by world champion Michael Schumacher.