Panis Fastest on Second Day of Testing in Barcelona

Toyota driver Olivier Panis remained the fastest of the day at the end of the second day of testing in Barcelona, Spain.

The Frenchman, who set his fastest time in the morning session, was under one tenth of a second faster than McLaren test driver Alex Wurz and almost half a second faster than McLaren driver David Coulthard.

"Today I carried out a tyre test in the morning - the first time I do a test with the Michelin tyres," Panis said at the end of the day. "We did quite an extensive test, trying many different types of tyre and I have to say that it has been really productive. I have already seen some good things with the tyres, but as always we need to continue work on this with the car we have, which is part of our programme for tomorrow. Like yesterday we managed to get a lot of kilometres done.

"We did 80 laps yesterday and another 74 today, which highlights the reliability of the TF102. I want to say that the work we have been doing has helped me learn a lot about the team and I feel we are improving a little bit more with each day. Everyone in the team has a very good motivation and this is a very positive aspect."

Among those few who improved their times from the morning session were the Williams trio of Ralf Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gene. For Schumacher, today has been the first day of testing since the 2002 season ended.

"Juan completed a tyre program for Michelin and clocked up a useful 84 laps with the P83 engine," said Tim Newton, Williams's test team manager. "Ralf also was able to complete all the test items on the list. Marc continued to put more mileage on the new P83 engine. Today was a busy day with the three cars and a full test team, but I am pleased with the level of productivity and all the hard work being done by the guys."

Jaguar driver Mark Webber, who was fastest yesterday, also improved his time, setting a laptime of 1:17.770. His teammate, Antonio Pizzonia, was further down the time sheet with a 1:20.121 - the ninth fastest time of the day.

Renault continued their young driver assessment program, running alongside Fernando Alonso was Romain Dumas for the second day in a row as well as F3000 driver Tiago Monteiro - the Portuguese making a Formula One debut in the 2002 Renault car.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Panis Toyota (M) 1:17.190 74 2. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.275 76 3. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.685 50 4. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:17.770 57 5. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.819 53 6. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.959 83 7. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:18.715 34 8. Davidson BAR-Honda (B) 1:19.422 79 9. Pizzonia Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:20.121 50 10. Alonso Renault (M) 1:20.811 63 11. Dumas Renault (M) 1:21.306 42 12. Monteiro Renault (M) 1:23.576 24 All Timing Unofficial

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