Silverstone test, day 2: Kimi has high speed smash
Formula 1 rookie Kimi Raikkonen walked away from a high speed accident after taking evasive action to avoid Ricardo Zonta's Jordan during testing at Silverstone today (Wednesday)
Raikkonen was forced to pitch his Sauber C20 into a spin as he came upon a slowing Zonta in the high-speed Chapel corner. The 21-year-old escaped with a bruised hand, but may not be able to continue with testing tomorrow due to the Swiss team's lack of necessary parts at the Northamptonshire track.
"Ricardo came after the incident to apologise," said Raikkonen, "and he explained that he was not sure on which side of the track I would be and he hesitated as he saw me come in his mirrors. It was clearly a misunderstanding between us and the main thing is that I am not hurt. These things happen sometimes."
Olivier Panis managed to top the time sheets during the morning session and wet weather hampered the teams during the afternoon, ensuring the BAR-Honda driver stayed fastest until the close of play.
The Frenchman was more than a second clear of the second placed Jos Verstappen for the Arrows team, while Raikkonen put in a lap of 1m24.744s before his accident - good enough for third spot.
The Jordans of Zonta and Jarno Trulli finished the day fourth and fifth with the second BAR of test driver Patrick Lemarie taking sixth just over half a second ahead of Enrique Bernoldi.
Meanwhile, fellow Bridgestone runner Ferrari was in action at its private Fiorano test track. Rubens Barrichello finished just ahead of test driver Luca Badoer and the pair completed a 133 laps between them.
While both drivers carried out electronics work, Barrichello also added a tyre development programme to his day's work.
"It was a positive day," said Barrichello. "The track temperature was very high, so I didn't think it would be possible to do any very quick times. However, the car was going very well and I managed to do the best lap for this track."
1 Olivier Panis, BAR-Honda B, 1m23.591
2 Jos Verstappen, Arrows-Asiatech B, 1m24.635s
3 Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber-Petronas B, 1m24.744s
4 Ricardo Zonta, Jordan-Honda, B 1m25.350s
5 Jarno Trulli, Jordan-Honda, B 1m25.516s
6 Patrick Lemarie, BAR-Honda B, 1m26.428s
7 Enrique Bernoldi, Arrows-Asiatech, B 1m27.192s
1 Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari, B 59.560s
2 Luca Badoer, Ferrari, B 1m.00.032s
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