Valencia Test: Day Two

The Scot finished a mere 100th of a second behind Hakkinen, despite the fact that he had never seen the circuit before, and claimed it was difficult to learn due to there being no distance markers at the corners.

"It's fun to drive," said Coulthard, "but it's difficult for the first 10-15 laps because there are no reference points."

Hakkinen spun on a few occasions, but seemed to have got to grips with the track, and was able to recover under his own steam.

Hakkinen will leave tomorrow, to be replaced by Olivier Panis. The Finn is stepping down from testing in order to attend the wedding of his physiotherapist.

The teams were still working on Hungary set-up, but several were clearly also trying out new systems or components. Pedro Diniz's Sauber spent much of the day testing Bridgestone development rubber, and as a result, his fourth fastest time may not be as representative as it seems.

Pedro de la Rosa missed the middle of the day while Arrows effected what was claimed to be an engine modification. Most intriguing of all, however, was the Benetton-Supertec team's focus on starting. Getting off the line well has become more important than ever this year, with the difficulty in overtaking remaining an issue. The team spent much of the day practising starts and working on systems to optimise this.

WilliamsF1 tested Hungary set-up with Jenson Button for most of the day, handing over to Ralf Schumacher in the afternoon. The German did not start until 4.00pm, and only ran 15 laps.

Testing continues tomorrow.

Valencia testing times: day 2
Hakkinen McLaren 1m16.10 - 44 laps
Coulthard McLaren 1m16.11 - 80 laps
de la Rosa Arrows 1m16.70 - 73 laps
Diniz Sauber 1m17.08 - 87 laps
Wurz Benetton 1m17.15 - 46 laps
Fisichella Benetton 1m17.24 - 54 laps
Burti Jaguar 1m17.33 - 76 laps
Button Williams 1m18.21 - 40 laps
R Schumacher Williams 1m19.36 - 15 laps