FEBRUARY 22, 2002

Grueling winter testing finally wraps up

MCLAREN and Williams were the last two teams to finish preseason testing of their new designs at Valencia on Friday. David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz gave the MP4/17s one more systems check before they are to be shipped to Melbourne, and Marc Gene did the same for the Williams FW24.

The two McLaren drivers were faster than Gene, and Coulthard even reset the track record at 1m10.438s.

The almost two months of continuous testing for many of the teams is finally over. Williams reported that they completed over 12,000 miles of testing in the FW24 since January 7, and many of the other teams have completed similar programs. All the attention will now swing to Melbourne for the opening round of the season, which is the real testing ground for the teams.

VALENCIA TEST - FRIDAY, 22 FEBRUARY 2002 POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME 1. DAVID COULTHARD McLaren-Mercedes 1:10.438 2. ALEXANDER WURZ McLaren-Mercedes 1:11.615 3. MARC GENE Williams-BMW 1:12.190

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