FEBRUARY 2, 2001

Panis tops times for second day running

FRENCHMAN Olivier Panis topped the times for the second successive day at Barcelona as he outpaced his nearest rival by over half-a-second at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Panis, in his Honda-powered British American Racing, posted a quickest lap time of one minute and 19.319 seconds to finish ahead of ahead of Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was third quickest, almost a second down on Panis, while Sauber's German driver Nick Heidfeld was fourth quickest despite completing just 39 laps.

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve was fifth in the times after amassing 80 laps on the Spanish circuit, while sixth-placed Finn Kimi Raikkonen continued his Formula One education.

Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi, whose Arrows team-mate Jos Verstappen sampled the new A22 chassis at Silverstone, completed 54 laps in the Leafield-based team's A21 car, which was equipped with 2001 components.

Benetton's Jenson Button was eighth quickest of the day while his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, the slowest of the nine drivers in action, was over four seconds down on Panis.

Times from Friday's testing at Barcelona:

POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME
Olivier Panis BAR 1:19.319
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan 1:19.998
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:20.238
Nick Heidfeld Sauber 1:20.280
Jacques Villeneuve BAR 1:20.363
Kimi Raikkonen Sauber 1:20.442
Enrique Bernoldi Arrows 1:20.548
Jenson Button Benetton 1:21.213
Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton 1:23.534