Valencia test, day 5: DC quick – even in the wet

Most teams at the Spanish circuit planned to complete race distance simulations today (Wednesday), but were forced to concentrate on wet weather tyre work as rain fell for most of the day, relenting only late-on in the afternoon, by which time it was all too late.

Coulthard was a cut above the rest and set a time almost two seconds faster than second placed man Jos Verstappen in the 2000-spec Arrows, who demoted McLaren test driver Alex Wurz, also in last year's car, down to third.

Atrociously wet conditions during the morning session posed problems for many drivers and caused both Kimi Raikkonen, who was driving an F1 car in the wet for the first time, and Eddie Irvine to leave the track. The young Finn set the ninth fastest time, 0.84s ahead of Irvine who was last.

This concludes a bad week for the Ulsterman who propped up the bottom of the time sheets for the third consecutive day. Luciano Burti was also struggling for pace and finished the day just ahead of Raikkonen in eighth.

"With this car, on this track and in these conditions, it's like a skating rink," said Burti. "There's just no grip."

Jordan's Jarno Trulli finished in fourth place just ahead of the second Sauber of Nick Heidfeld who tested several different wet weather tyre compounds for Bridgestone and completed an impressive 78 laps.

The second Jordan-Honda of Heinz-Harald Frentzen set the sixth fastest time and brought the day's running to an early close when the EJ11 left the circuit, but no damage was caused. Just behind Frentzen was Enrique Bernoldi in the 2001 A22 and like the German, Bernoldi too had a moment when the throttle on the AMT-powered car stuck open. The young Brazilian came to a halt in a tyre wall without causing any serious damage and escaped unhurt.

Today was the final day of running in Spain and for some teams the final major test before the cars will be packed up and shipped to Australia late next week. Another test is due to take place next week in Barcelona, but so far only BAR, Williams and McLaren are attending.

At Estoril Frenchman Jean Alesi set the fastest time for the Prost GP team ahead of young Brit Jenson Button in the troublesome Benetton B201. Button carried out development work and concentrated on the engine mapping of the new Renault V10.

"It has been a satisfying day today," said Benetton's technical director Mike Gascoyne. "We got a good long run in on the new car and got another engine up to mileage. Each time we have don this we have made good progress with the chassis and our times reflect that."

Running was also concluded at the Fiorano circuit where Luca Badoer carried out development work on the electronics of the Ferrari F2001. The Italian completed 62 laps and posted a best time of 1m01.017s.


David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes B 1m31.30s, 64
Jos Verstappen, Arrows-AMT B (2000) 1m31.29s, 32
Alexander Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes B (2000) 1m31.90s, 82
Jarno Trulli, Jordan-Honda B 1m32.06s, 62
Nick Heidfeld, Sauber-Petronas B 1m32.06s, 78
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jordan-Honda B 1m32.06s, 47
Enrique Bernoldi, Arrows-AMT B 1m33.00s, 29
Luciano Burti, Jaguar M 1m34.04s, 29
Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber-Petronas B 1m34.40s, 17
Eddie Irvine, Jaguar M 1m35.24s, 39


Jean Alesi, Prost-Ferrari M 1m18.929s, 58
Jenson Button, Benetton-Renault M 1m20.159, 60
Gaston Mazzacane, Prost-Ferrari M1m20.700, 33

M - Michelin
B - Bridgestone
NB: all cars 2001 specification unless specified