Ralf tops Kyalami; Alesi reigns at Estoril

British American Racing and Williams began a six-day test at the former South African Grand Prix circuit which has not been used since an international sports car race last November. The 2.648-mile circuit therefore offered little grip to the brace of new Williams-BMWs and the sole 2001 BAR-Honda of Olivier Panis who, as a result, was third fastest.

Montoya spun in the second 2001 car, which had not turned a wheel before arriving at the Johannesburg circuit, but did not incur any damage.

"I've spent the day familiarising myself with the track," said Montoya. "Despite a small problem with the gearbox, I managed a good number of laps today. We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next few days and I'm pretty fired-up about my first full test programme with the 2001 challenger."

The teams used today for initial set-up work and acclimatisation. BAR carried out some aerodynamic evaluation and used various nose cones on its 003 chassis, while Williams concentrated more on cooling systems in the 30-degree South African heat.

"We've done some productive work and we've learned a lot about cooling and high temperatures," said Williams technical director Patrick Head. "The lap times relative to our previous visit last year are quite good. We are also quite pleased with the performance of the Michelin tyres."

At Portugal's former GP venue of Estoril, Alesi's new Prost-Ferrari AP04 topped the timesheets. He was a massive 1.4secs quicker than the opposition, giving the French team even more optimism for the coming season.

Arrows newboy Enrique Bernoldi was second fastest in last year's A21, the Brazilian concentrating on long runs that included practice pit stops, which didn't go quite to plan, and starts. Team mate Jos Verstappen drove the 2001-spec A22 but was hampered by a hydraulic problem which curtailed his running in the afternoon.

Benetton brought in test driver Mark Webber to replace new recruit Jenson Button, who was suffering from a stomach complaint and couldn't drive. Webber focused on tyre work with Michelin and was third quickest in last year's B200, but he was over a second quicker than Giancarlo Fisichella in the new B201, who struck a mapping-related problem with Renault's new V10 motor which necessitated yet another engine change.

Finally, Jordan was the sole team to run at Silverstone today, with Ricardo Zonta completing 15 laps as the team concentrated on oil system development tests and practice pit stops. Bad weather prevented him from running in the afternoon, so Jordan's next running is at Valencia in Spain next week - which will probably be warmer than Silverstone on a wet Thursday in February.



1 Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW (2001) 1m21.909s 40
2 Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW (2001) 1m22.923s 47
3 Olivier Panis, BAR-Honda (2001) 1m23.928s 33



1 Jean Alesi, Prost-Ferrari (2001) 1m19.606s 31
2 Enrique Bernoldi, Arrows-AMT (2000) 1m21.070s 84
3 Mark Webber, Benetton-Renault (2000) 1m21.930s 38
4 Giancarlo Fisichella, Benetton-Renault (2001) 1m23.060s 33
5 Jos Verstappen, Arrows-AMT (2001) 1m23.180s 14