FEBRUARY 1, 2001

Schumacher impressed by new Ferrari on its debut

WORLD CHAMPION Michael Schumacher expressed his delight with the performance of Ferrari's new F2001 car after he tested it for the first time at Fiorano, Italy, on Thursday.

German Schumacher, driving the number one car for the first time, impressed the onlookers, which included Ferrari's Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Luca di Montezemolo, as he completed 68 laps.

"The first impression is very good," said Schumacher, who posted a quickest lap time of 59.505 seconds. "The car is very competitive.

"The times are very good, thanks to the new Bridgestone tires which perform better than last year's and the car handles well and seems reliable.

"We did a lot of laps without any problems and that is a good sign. The plan was to do several runs of around five or six laps each and try to build the mileage and it worked well."