Michelin Pleased with First Official Testing

Michelin said they were pleased with the first official testing session the tyre supplier had held along with the rest of the 2001 grid.

Seven drivers of three teams were running on Michelin tyres today at Jerez, with Eddie Irvine of Jaguar setting the fastest time among them, and the fifth overall time for the day.

"There were a lot of nervous tyre engineers out there this morning but, thankfully, it all went according to plan," said Michelin spokesman Andy Pope. "We've been running with the three contracted teams all day - Jaguar, Benetton and Williams. It's all been very much as we expected. Now we know how much work is to be done, but it's a good start to the learning curve. The feedback from the drivers has been very positive. Obviously, they want more - drivers always do - but we've had a lot of constructive comments."

Overall, Michelin have taken 15 different compounds to the test, including wet weather tyres (thunderstorms are expected tomorrow). Each team is running one car with a 'standard' tyre while the more experienced driver tests with development compounds (at Jaguar Racing, Luciano Burti will run on the standard tyres).

"Some of the tyres haven't been as good as we'd hoped, but others have been better," said Pope. "We knew from testing last year that we were going to be fast. Of course, we didn't expect to be five seconds quicker than the Bridgestone runners, but then we didn't expect to be five seconds slower, either. So we are happy with our first day."