Wurz Quickest Again at Barcelona - Day Three

McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz was, for the second consecutive day, the fastest men at the Barcelona circuit, where the McLaren team concluded their final test of the 2001 season.

Wurz set the fastest time of the three days of testing at the Catalan track, the Austrian completing a massive 129 laps to finished ahead of Mark Webber. Australian Webber was at the wheel of the Benetton for the third consecutive day, the test driver today trying a new spec of the Renault engine, which will be used for qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix next week. Webber also conducted some tyre testing for Michelin.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa today replaced teammate Eddie Irvine, driving the only Jaguar present at Barcelona. De la Rosa was one of the busiest men today, doing 126 laps to set the third quickest time.

The Williams team were the only ones running with two cars, with Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who already tested on Wednesday, replacing German Ralf Schumacher, who got married in Austria today. Pizzonia finished the session ahead of the team's test driver Marc Gene, who was slowest. Williams, who will continue testing on Saturday, were pleased with their progress.

"The last test of the 2001 season is very important for us," said BMW boss Mario Theissen. "I'm happy the team managed to run the 2002 V10 engine in an interim chassis before the long test ban, which runs until the end of the year. This was a big effort on behalf of the whole team.

"On Wednesday and today we've put some mileage on the new engine and generated a lot of important data. With that basic information at hand we can work on improvements on the dyno during the winter. We also ran this year's P80 engine at the test."

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time 1. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.798 2. Webber Benetton-Renault (M) 1:19.384 3. De la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:20.408 4. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:20.892 5. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:21.099 All Timing Unofficial