Villeneuve starts make-or-break test

Oilivier Panis put this year's BAR004 through its paces over the last two days, but today is Villeneuve's maiden outing. As teams approached the halfway mark, he was 14th fastest more than four seconds behind pacesetter Juan Pablo Montoya.

Villeneuve has made no secret of the fact that he could walk out on the Brackley-based outfit should the all-new car not meet his performance expectations during the first few months of the new season.

The 1997 world champion's position at the team has been in doubt since his manager and mentor Craig Pollock was ousted as BAR team boss just before Christmas and replaced by Prodrive chairman David Richards.

Meanwhile, Formula 1 rookie Takuma Sato is having his first outing with new team Jordan. The reigning British Formula 3 champion was at the foot of the top 10 at 1300 (local time) and had experienced no problems settling in to his new office.

The Silverstone squad is due to launch its 2002 machine later this month. In the meantime Sato and new team mate Giancarlo Fisichella are carrying out development work using last year's EJ11.