Valencia, day 3: Kimi's record run

The Finn, who set his best time on a fresh set of soft compound Michelin tyres, enjoyed a productive day's work, completing 84 laps of the Spanish circuit. McLaren tester Alex Wurz was the busiest driver of the day, covering 92 laps as he worked on tyre testing in a 2001-spec car. Although he was almost a second slower than Raikkonen, he was very happy with the new rubber, which he reckons is worth a second a lap compared to last year's Bridgestones.

Pedro de la Rosa was third fastest, but did not match his time from yesterday, The Spaniard is a lot happier with the car and he tried all the new aero pieces the team intends to run in Australia.

"The car is definitely better," he said. "I've tried all the new parts now and although things could be better we at least know where we are."

The team plans another major aero revision ahead of the Malaysian GP.

Michael Schumacher tested the Ferrari F2002 for the first time at Mugello today. The world champion did 36 laps of development work and set a best time of 1m23.650s.


Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m10.937s 84
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes* M 1m11.914s 92
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m13.215s 46
Eddie Irvine Jaguar M 1m14.978s 49

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2001 car