Valencia day two: Sauber flies again

On a warm but windy day, Heidfeld set a best lap of 1m13.717s, which is almost two seconds off the track record, but put him a tenth up on Takuma Sato, who was using last year's Jordan EJ11. For once the Japanese driver was able to cover a simulated race distance and he covered 73 laps of the tight Spanish circuit.

Felipe Massa underlined the form of Sauber's latest car by recording the third quickest time ahead of a trio of Williams'. The fastest of these was Juan Pablo Montoya in the FW24 and he was just a fraction up on Ralf Schumacher, who was also in the new car. Marc Gene was a second further back in a 2001 machine and the Spaniard brought out the only red flag of the day after he spun without damage in the morning.

Jenson Button took over from the unwell Jarno Trulli in the new Renault and the Englishman was eighth quickest, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan EJ12. Mark Webber and Alex Yoong put the Asiatech-powered Minardi PS02 through its paces, although neither driver covered many laps and both were some way off the pace.

Testing continues tomorrow with Arrows introducing its new A23 into the mix.


Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas* B 1m13.717s 99
Takuma Sato Jordan-Honda B 1m13.830s 73
Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas* B 1m13.933s 91
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW* M 1m14.025s 55
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW* M 1m14.037s 57
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m15.038s 66
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m15.340s 49
Jenson Button Renault* M 1m15.771s 39
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda* B 1m15.968s 53
Mark Webber Minardi-Asiatech* M 1m18.048s 14
Alex Yoong Minardi-Asiatech* M 1m21.002s 21

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2002 car