Panis Fastest at Valencia Testing - Day One

McLaren test driver Olivier Panis was fastest at testing yesterday at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

Panis was almost a second quicker than fellow McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen in hot and humid conditions. Hakkinen was over a second faster than the third fastest driver, Jaguar test driver Luciano Burti, who is a possibility to join Eddie Irvine at Jaguar next year, replacing the retiring Johnny Herbert.

Fourth and fifth fastest were Benetton teammates Alexander Wurz and Giancarlo Fisichella, who will be testing at Valencia for three days. Wurz and Fisichella concentrated on car set-up for the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, as well as practicing starts during the day.

Pedro Diniz was seventh fastest for Sauber, after suffering an oil leak during the day. He tried both compounds of Bridgestone tyres, while working on set-up for Hungary. "I’m a bit frustrated because of the track time we lost today, trying to find the origin of the small oil leak. Once the Team discovered where the leak came from we made a lot of progress on our aerodynamic configuration for the race in Hungary on August 13," Diniz commented.

Yesterday's times:

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Panis McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.893 2. Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:16.671 3. Burti Jaguar-Cosworth 1:17.849 4. Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:17.917 5. Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:18.146 6. de la Rosa Arrows-Supertec 1:18.478 7. Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1:18.731 8. Button Williams-BMW 1:18.999 All Timing Unofficial