Estoril, day 1: New cars hit the track

With spare parts in short supply for the new Lola chassis, many drivers were understandably circumspect, and times will no doubt tumble over the remaining two days.

With so many new team and driver combinations present most of the day was used for 'bedding in', and although the test's unofficial status permitted the use of more than one car per team, most chose to ignore this and ran one driver in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

Behind the top two was Astromega's Mario Haberfeld, who was joined at the test by his new team-mate Rob Nguyen. The 20-year-old Australian, who has been racing for less than two years, impressed the team greatly with his pace.

"In the morning he was fourth quickest," said team boss Sam Boyle. "And when you consider the experience he has and the people he's up against, that's amazing. At the moment he's getting to grips with the physical demands of driving the car. We'll give him the day off tomorrow to recover and put him out again on Thursday."

Antonio Pizzonia, who has gone so well in testing for the Williams F1 team this winter, was surprisingly far down the timesheets in 11th, behind fellow F1 tester, and F3000 rookie, Ryan Briscoe.

Testing continues tomorrow.


Alex Muller Durango 1m29.77s
Tomas Enge Arden 1m29.78s
Mario Haberfeld Astromega 1m29.85
Giorgio Pantano Super Nova 1m29.86s
Tiago Monteiro Super Nova 1m30.33s
Ricardo Sperafico Petrobras 1m30.52s
Zsolt Baumgartner Nordic 1m30.52s
Rodrigo Sperafico Durango 1m30.81s
Ryan Briscoe Nordic 1m30.81s
Ricardo Mauricio Red Bull 1m30.82s
Antonio Pizzonia Petrobras 1m30.88s
Rob Nguyen Astromega 1m30.94s