Thursday F1 testing: all the times
Formula 1 testing continued today (Thursday) as the teams make final preparations before heading east for the Japanese Grand Prix in 10 days time
Silverstone hosted the biggest gathering, with three UK-based teams making the trip to the Northamptonshire circuit. Jordan-Mugen Honda's Jarno Trulli topped the times 0.15s ahead of Eddie Irvine's Jaguar. Both drivers were concentrating on testing the new medium/hard Bridgestone tyre compound to be used at Suzuka.
BAR-Honda had two cars at the track, with Darren Manning setting a time 1.29s faster than Patrick Lemarie. Manning had an off in the afternoon in the Woodcote complex and Lemarie stopped out on the circuit with technical problems, ending the day's running.
At the Ferrari-owned Mugello circuit, world championship leader Michael Schumacher continued set-up work on the Ferrari F1-2000. Schumacher took over from test driver Luca Badoer and set the best time of the day, almost two seconds clear of young Finn Kimi Raikkonen in a Sauber.
"Today we definitely made some steps forward thanks to the new tyres," said Schumacher. "There were also a few small changes on the car, but our increased speed was mainly down to the tyres."
Official Sauber test driver Enrique Bernoldi was also at Mugello, but was out-paced by Raikkonen by 0.062s. The Formula Renault Champion has now tested twice for the Swiss outfit and impressed both times.
Finally, a sole Williams-BMW continued to pound round the Estoril circuit with Jenson Button at the wheel. Williams was the only team at the Portuguese track and Button, despite his different location, carried out much the same work as the other teams, assessing new tyre compounds for Japan.
J Trulli Jordan-Mugen Honda 1m26.38s 76
E Irvine Jaguar 1m26.53s 66
D Manning BAR-Honda 1m27.47s 41
P Lemarie BAR-Honda 1m28.76s
M Schumacher Ferrari 1m24.709s 56
K Raikkonen Sauber-Petronas 1m26.418s 36
E Bernoldi Sauber-Petronas 1m26.480 35s
J Button Williams-BMW 1m21.482s 60
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