Estoril test, day 2: Bourdais tops

Champion Justin Wilson was once again quickest overall in the new version of Lola's F3000 racer, but with the rest of the drivers confined to the older car, Bourdais came out on top. Track conditions were quicker on the second and final day of the test, so the Frenchman's time ended up quicker than Tomas Enge's from the day before. The Czech had also been driving for Arden.

Team boss Christian Horner was pleased with Bourdais' performance, but continued to be impressed with Italian Gianmaria Bruni, who was driving the second car as he had the day before. Bourdais only beat his best towards the end of the day.

"Bruni was particularly impressive given his lack of F3000 experience," said Horner. "He has been pitched in against two championship favourites over the two days, and has performed equally, bar a few tenths."

Joel Camathias proved best of the non-Arden drivers once again for Nordic, while Super Nova gave F3 ace Tiago Monteiro a run. He was the fourth quickest driver in the old Lola, having taken over from Briton Michael Bentwood, who drove on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, Michael had an accident during Tuesday afternoon's session, but he adapted well," said Super Nova boss David Sears. "Tiago took to F3000 like a duck to water and put in some real competitive times compared to some other drivers who had already had at least one day's testing here."

The next official test takes place next week at Barcelona.


Justin Wilson*, Nordic, 1m28.002s
Sebastien Bourdais, Arden, 1m28.984s
Gianmaria Bruni, Arden, 1m29.275s
Joel Camathias, Nordic, 1m30.097s
Tiago Monteiro, Super Nova, 1m30.321s
Bjorn Wirdheim, Durango, 1m30.369s
Zsolt Baumgartner, Nordic, 1m30.451s
Mirko Venturi, Durango, 1m31.320s
Yannick Schroeder, Coloni, 1m31.377s
Jaroslav Janis, Coloni, 1m31.412s
Michele Rugolo, Durango, 1m32.408s

* Driving the new Lola B2/50