DECEMBER 20, 2000

On the Button at Estoril

BENETTON driver Jenson Button revelled in the absence of former BMW-Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher as he topped the times in testing at Estoril on Wednesday.

Button outpaced Jaguar's Eddie Irvine to top the times at the Portuguese circuit with a quickest lap time of one minute and 21.540 seconds.

Irvine was second quickest ahead of his team-mate Luciano Burti with BMW-Williams new-boy Juan Pablo Montoya fourth on the time sheets.

BMW-Williams test driver Marc Gene won the battle of the testers as he went quicker than Benetton's Mark Webber, who ended sixth fastest.

Times from Wednesday's testing at Estoril:

POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME 1  Jenson Button Benetton 1:21.540 2  Eddie Irvine Jaguar 1:21.958 3  Luciano Burti Jaguar 1:22.040 4  Juan Pablo Montoya BMW-Williams 1:22.181 5  Marc Gene BMW-Williams 1:23.031 6  Mark Webber Benetton 1:23.593