Webber quickest at Silverstone on back of F1 test

All but two teams from this year's field turned out at the Northamptonshire track for the first of two days running and after a three-day test with Benetton last week, the Australian set the fastest time 0.404s ahead of second-placed Justin Wilson.

All the day's fastest times were set during the dry morning session and while rain in the afternoon precluded the drivers from setting any faster times, it did allow for some important wet weather testing to be carried out.

It was good in the rain," said seventh-placed Antonio Pizzonia. "I am very happy with the car and when I stopped I was the quickest driver. It's good to have experience on a track as I'm sure we'll have some races in the rain this year."

After a troubled time at the previous tests at Jerez and Imola, European Minardi Junior driver David Saelens, who lost his seat with Super Nova, managed to set the third fastest time.

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais finished the day in fourth place in his DAMS Lola, while Brit Darren Manning, who is sticking with the Arden International team for 2001, continued his run near the top of the grid by taking fifth place.

Fabrizio Gollin took sixth, with last year's McLaren Junior number one Tomas Enge in eighth behind Pizzonia. With McLaren having pulled the plug on its F3000 squad for this year, Enge has switched to the Nordic team, alongside Wilson.

KTR peddlar Bas Leinders finished the day ninth, while Webber's Super Nova team mate rounded out the top ten, nine places behind the Australian after suffering from electrical problems.

"In the dry I am confident that we can be very quick," said Haberfeld, "but in the wet I think we have a bit of work to do, so it would be quite good if tomorrow is the same as today."

German Formula 3 Champion Giorgio Pantano continued his disappointing run with the Astromega team and set a best time which left the Italian in 13th place.

The Kid Jensen Racing team, which scored a last minute reprieve to race in the series this year by filling the vacant slot left by McLaren, was not present at the test and has yet to announce its 2001 driver line-up, while Fortec has announced it will not be competing in the championship this year.


Mark Webber, Super Nova, 1m36.811s
Justin Wilson, Nordic, 1m37.215s
David Saelens, European Minardi Junior, 1m37.332s
Sebastien Bourdais, DAMS, 1m37.377s
Darren Manning, Arden, 1m37.505s
Fabrizio Gollin, Coloni, 1m37.973s
Antonio Pizzonia, Petrobras, 1m38.025s
Tomas Enge, Nordic, 1m38.053s
Bas Leinders, KTR, 1m38.129s
Mario Haberfeld, Super Nova, 1m38.146s
Ricardo Sperafico, Petrobras, 1m38.510s
Jaime Melo, Durango Formula, 1m38.569s
Giorgio Pantano, Astromega, 1m38.581s
Antonio Garcia, Red Bull Junior Team, 1m38.614s
Viktor Maslov, Arden, 1m38.945s
Patrick Freisacher, Red Bull Junior Team, 1m39.008s
Enrique Toccacelo, Coloni, 1m39.284s
Derek Hill, DAMS, 1m39.455s
Joel Camathias, KTR, 1m39.569s
Nicolas Filliberti, Prost Junior Team, 1m39.620s
Ananda Mikola, Astromega, 1m39.763s
Gabriele Varano, Prost Junior Team, 1m39.784s
Gabriele Lancieri, Durango Formula, 1m40.247s