Estoril, day 3: Arden one-two

Enge's time in the afternoon proved to be the fastest of the day, and the best over the whole three days, leaving Arden boss Christian Horner delighted with progress.

"We were quickest in every [official] session, bar one," he said. "Bjorn was particularly impressive considering his lack of experience in F3000. He never put a wheel wrong."

The Italian Coloni and Durango teams proved to be the best of the rest over the final day, which proved the quickest of the test. Enrico Toccacelo and Rodrigo Sperafico were third and fourth respectively.

Champion team Nordic Racing had a bad day. Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner had a huge shunt at the first corner, going straight on into the barrier. He emerged with nothing more than a sore neck and team manager Chris Mower said the accident was not caused by driver error.

It marked the first major shunt for Lola's new B2/50 and the chassis held up well to the impact. "It was at very high speed and he went straight into the barrier," said Mower. "With this car's narrow track, the wheels didn't fold back into the sidepods and there is no damage to the monocoque. It is quite impressive compared to the old car."

The only serious mechanical failure hit Team Astromega, when Rob Nguyen's gearbox grenaded. Super Nova and Petrobras were also said to have suffered transmission problems.

Tomas Enge Arden 1m28.121s
Bjorn Wirdheim Arden 1m28.210s
Enrico Toccacelo Coloni 1m28.412s
Rodrigo Sperafico Durango 1m28.678s
Patrick Friesacher Red Bull 1m28.709s
Antonio Pizzonia Petrobras 1m28.835s
Nicolas Kiesa PSM 1m28.978s
Zsolt Baumgartner Nordic 1m29.048s
Alex Muller Durango 1m29.085s
Giorgio Pantano Super Nova 1m29.087s
Rob Nguyen Astromega 1m29.330s
Tony Schmidt PSM 1m29.688s
Tiago Monteiro Super Nova 1m29.874s