Valencia test, day 1: Wurz pips Hakkinen

The luckless Mika Hakkinen, who came to a halt while in the lead on the last lap of Sunday's race with clutch failure, finished second to McLaren team mate and test driver Alex Wurx after the day's running was reduced to a shortened afternoon session following the bad weather conditions in the morning.

Five teams - McLaren, Benetton, Williams, Jaguar and Prost - had decided to stay on in Spain to avoid the poor English weather that has blighted Silverstone testing in recent weeks, but were greeted with torrential rain first thing this morning, which turned into hail and then snow. A barrier at the back of the circuit was even struck by lightning.

Teams had just taken to the track after lunch when the heavens opened once again leaving just over three hours of running in the afternoon.

With everyone keen to make up for lost ground, a high volume of traffic quickly dried the track and Wurz set a best time of 1m16.17s, more than a second clear of Hakkinen. The Finn had clearly got over losing out on victory at Barcelona and joked about getting a lift back to the pits with team mate David Coulthard.

"I just couldn't believe it [when the car stopped]. At least I finished the race, just in the wrong car," he quipped.

Mark Webber gave encouragement to the struggling Benetton team by taking third spot, albeit in a 2000-spec car, just ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams in fourth.

Pedro de la Rosa finished fifth for Jaguar and the Big Cat's team leader Eddie Irvine languished in seventh, while former Jag man Luciano split the pair of R2s with his new team, Prost GP.


1 Alexander Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m16.17s 44
2 Mika Hakkinen, McLaren-Mercedes B, 1m17.31s 48
3 Mark Webber, Benetton-Renault M, 1m18.04s
4 Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW M, 1m18.07s
5 Pedro de la Rosa, Jaguar-Cosworth M, 1m18.28s
6 Luciano Burti, Prost-Acer M, 1m18.37s
7 Eddie Irvine, Jaguar-Cosworth M, 1m18.47s
8 Marc Gene, Williams-BMW M, 1m18.35s