Silverstone, day three: McLaren on top
Test King Olivier Panis was once again fastest for McLaren on the last day of the Silverstone F1 test, by over a second from championship leader Mika Hakkinen.
McLaren demonstrated once again that they are head and shoulders above the field, Ferrari excepted. Nobody other than Hakkinen got within 2.5 seconds of Panis's time...
In fact, the Frenchman's fastest times were set with the aid of Bridgestone development tyres. Though the Japanese concern was eager to test intermediate rubber, they were forced to do more evaluation on dry weather tyres, as at no point in the day did it rain.
Most of the teams, McLaren included, were testing in preparation for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. This entailed using a lower downforce set-up than is the norm at Silverstone, and this had Jaguar Racing struggling in the strong winds that the track saw today.
Ralf Schumacher crashed the Williams at Copse, damaging his front wing and front right suspension, after entering the corner too fast. As a result, he was only able to set 27 laps - the same number as Eddie Irvine, who suffered a gearbox problem.
Times from Silverstone, day 3
1 Panis McLaren 1m23.87 - 64 laps
2 Hakkinen McLaren 1m24.93 - 49 laps
3 R Schumacher Williams 1m26.31 - 27 laps
4 De La Rosa Arrows 1m26.49 - 55 laps
5 Trulli Jordan 1m27.03 - 67 laps
6 Irvine Jaguar 1m27.83 - 27 laps
7 Burti Jaguar 1m27.95 - 61 laps
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