Monza test, day 2: Wurz shines through

Coulthard arrived to share the workload with Wurz today (Wednesday), but was overshadowed by the Austrian as DC finished third behind Heidfeld, who set the second fastest time for the second consecutive day. However, Coulthard was hampered late in the afternoon by an engine problem and was not surprised to finish the day where he did.

"I expected it to be difficult," said Coulthard. "The car was difficult to drive, but nothing unusual. We didn't get around to doing any tyre testing, due to the engine problem."

Wurz made the most of his last day of running before handing over to Mika Hakkinen tomorrow, but his work was also cut short and was brought to a premature close due to an electronics glitch. The 27-year-old's time was 0.07s shy of Michael Schumacher's pole time from last year, but he believes the times will come down at the Italian Grand Prix in September.

"If I'd had less fuel, then I could have gone quicker," said Wurz. "The times should go down to low 1m22s."

Pedro de la Rosa was fourth fastest and the highest placed Jaguar driver after team leader Eddie Irvine relinquished his driving duties to test driver Andre Lotterer due to a recurring neck problem for the Ulsterman. Irvine's day was not completely wasted however, as Formula 1's playboy was able to take part in a photo-shoot at the Italian track.

Formula 3000 ace and F1 test driver Darren Manning ensured BAR was the top Honda-powered team by setting the fifth fastest time, closely followed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who was fastest on day one, in sixth place for Jordan. Both drivers did long stints behind the wheel, with Manning doing a 25-lap run and Frentzen one of 25 and another of 28.

Lotterer completed only nine laps and was a respectable seventh ahead of Jordan test driver Ricardo Zonta.


Alex Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m23.84s, 41 laps
Nick Heidfeld, Sauber-Petronas B, 1m23.89s, 34 laps
David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m23.97s, 63 laps
Pedro de la Rosa, Jaguar M, 1m24.75s, 70 laps
Darren Manning, BAR-Honda B, 1m25.12s, 73 laps
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jordan-Honda B, 1m25.14s, 70 laps
Andre Lotterer, Jaguar M, 1m26.05s, 9 laps
Ricardo Zonta, Jordan-Honda B, 1m26.38s, 56 laps
Eddie Irvine, Jaguar M, 1m27.06s, 7 laps