JANUARY 17, 2001
Hakkinen finishes on top in Valencia, as Irvine crashes
MCLAREN's Mika Hakkinen demonstrated his intent to regain his world championship crown as he topped the times for the second successive day on the final day of testing at Valencia on Wednesday.
Finn Hakkinen was over half-a-second quicker than nearest rival Juan Pablo Montoya's BMW-Williams as he posted a quickest lap time of one minute 13.832 seconds.
Montoya, of Colombia, was marginally quicker than McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella powering his Benetton to the fourth fastest time of the day.
BMW-Williams driver Ralf Schumacher was fifth while Jos Verstappen continued for Arrows and went sixth quickest at the Spanish circuit.
Briton Eddie Irvine recovered from a morning shunt, his first experience of Jaguar's new R2 chassis, to post a quickest time of one minute and 15.657 seconds. He completed the session in the R1B, which was set up for Luciano Burti, after the accident wrote-off the new car.
Young Briton ended eighth behind Irvine as he continued his education with Benetton BMW-Williams tester Marc Gene was the slowest of the nine drivers in action.
Times from testing at Valencia on Wednesday: