Panis Stays on Top at Barcelona - Day Two

Frenchman Olivier Panis set the pace on the second day of testing at the Circuit the Catalunya, outshining with his Toyota the rest of the drivers present at the Spanish track.

Panis, who joined the test today, worked at the wheel of the new Toyota TF103, setting a quickest time of 1:15.508 to finish nearly half a second ahead of the closest of his rivals. Panis' time was around half a second slower than the track record.

"Everything went quite ok today and I am reasonably happy," Panis said. "We continued with our Australia preparations, working on different things. We conducted a small tyre construction test and we did some further development work on the HANS system this morning. Overall, we are heading in a good direction."

Toyota worked with both their drivers, with Brazilian Cristiano da Matta posting the eighth fastest time in the TF102B chassis. He was more than three seconds off the pace of his teammate, who was followed on the timesheets by Spaniard Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

Alonso, fastest yesterday, was again at the wheel of the new spec R23, with the new aerodynamic package introduced for the first time on Monday, while teammate Jarno Trulli worked with the R23 with the old package, concentrating on car reliability. Alonso carried out a tyre testing programme for Michelin.

"We had another productive day's testing at the Barcelona circuit," said Renault's Mike Gascoyne. "Fernando continued the evaluation of the new aerodynamic package. Jarno's running was cut short due to an engine misfire. Allan focused on suspension development on last year's car."

Briton Ralph Firman continued to work alongside Italian teammate Giancarlo Fisichella as the Jordan team put more miles on their new car. Firman, who will make his Grand Prix debut next month in Australia, finished as 11th quickest after suffering his first crash in an F1 car.

The Formula One Nippon champion went off the track in the morning and damaged the front of his car, losing some track time. Firman finished more than three seconds behind teammate Fisichella, who set the third quickest time of the day, outpacing all three Williams drivers.

German Ralf Schumacher was the quickest of the Williams trio today with the new FW25, while Spanish test driver Marc Gene finished just ahead of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya. Gene worked with the hybrid FW24 chassis, while Montoya drove the second FW25.

The BAR team were also on track for the first time today after missing the first day of work. Briton Jenson Button was the fastest of the two drivers from the Brackley-based squad, outpacing Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, who could only complete 11 laps today.

Testing at Barcelona will continue tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Panis Toyota (M) 1:15.508 50 2. Alonso Renault (M) 1:15.943 50 3. Fisichella Jordan-Ford (B) 1:17.071 56 4. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.712 56 5. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.765 42 6. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:18.377 53 7. Button BAR-Honda (B) 1:18.889 41 8. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:19.170 53 9. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:19.718 11 10. Trulli Renault (M) 1:20.348 12 11. Firman Jordan-Ford (B) 1.20.593 48 12. McNish Renault (M) 1.21.860 43 All Timing Unofficial

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