Verstappen Fastest at Silverstone Testing

Jos Verstappen was fastest on the final day of testing at Silverstone yesterday.

The circuit was again damp in the morning, but had dried by the afternoon.

Arrows tested with both their drivers, Jos Verstappen and Pedro de la Rosa, with the two drivers running different testing programs. Verstappen continued chassis tuning while also completing a tyre test for Bridgestone, setting the fastest time of the day of 1:24.99. Verstappen incurred some minor rear wing damage when the car's engine cover flew off, but apart from this it was a trouble free day. At the same time, de la Rosa was doing some longer runs, including pit stops, to prepare the pit crew for the race. de la Rosa's car suffered a minor water leak, but still managed the seventh fastest time of 1:27.05.

Mika Salo concluded Sauber's testing at Silverstone with the third fastest time, and felt that they would perform better in Austria, commenting: "We had a good, productive day and made good progress setting up the engine. I think we have now identified why we were struggling for traction at Magny-Cours, so I`m feeling good for Austria." Salo worked mainly on engine mapping, with a fastest lap of 1:26.23.

Alexander Wurz and Antonio Pizzonia completed Benetton's testing, although they had a frustrating final day. Wurz started the day working on start practice, but an engine problem cut this short. In the afternoon he completed some general set-up work, but was affected by incident on the circuit. Pizzonia spent the morning putting some laps on the qualifying spec engine until he was stopped when it failed. In the afternoon, he suffered another engine failure ending his day.

Yesterday's times:

1999 fastest testing time: G. Fisichella (Benetton) 1:25.670