APRIL 2, 2002

Teams salvage some testing in Spain

Despite the heavy rain in Spain, the eight teams that made the trip to the Valencia circuit did get some testing in Tuesday.

DESPITE the heavy rain in Spain, the eight teams that made the trip to the Valencia circuit did get some testing in Tuesday. Allan McNish, Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson and Alexander Wurz were the only drivers to take to the soaked track before mid-day, but eventually the other five drivers joined in.

Nick Heidfeld was fastest during the first of a three day test for Sauber. Heidfeld and his team was forced to change their program because of the conditions. "I mainly concentrated on set-up work today. I had a trouble-free day. The car was quite difficult to handle on this wet track. It is very slippery because of all the rubber left over from the motorcycle race this weekend. At one point I spun off, but the car just stopped on the gravel. I'm very satisfied with the way the car went. I am feeling very optimistic for tomorrow's program but hope that the weather clears up a little bit."

Takuma Sato completed more laps than any other driver Tuesday. The Jordan driver ran 74 laps, also working on wet weather set up, and was second fastest on the day, half a second off Heidfeld's time.

Eddie Irvine worked for the Jaguar team, continuing to develop the troubled R3 as the series returns to Europe in two weeks. Irvine was over a second and a half off Heidfeld's time Tuesday.

Williams tested with Antonio Pizzonia and Marc Gene Tuesday in the wet, and McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz conducted wet weather testing as well.

There were numerous spins due to the conditions, but Fernando Alonso had the largest incident. The Renault test driver spun the R202 into the wall near the pit-entrance on his 19th lap, bringing out one of the numerous red flags.

Allan McNish and Anthony Davidson finished the day at the bottom of the timesheets Tuesday for Toyota and BAR-Honda.

VALENCIA TEST - TUESDAY, 2 APRIL 2002

POS

DRIVER ENTRANT TIME

1.

NICK HEIDFELD Sauber-Petronas 1:33.03

2.

TAKUMA SATO Jordan-Honda 1:33.59

3.

EDDIE IRVINE Jaguar-Cosworth 1:34.74

4.

ANTONIO PIZZONIA Williams-BMW 1:35.45

5.

ALEXANDER WURZ McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.08

6.

MARC GENE Williams-BMW 1:37.15

7.

FERNANDO ALONSO Renault 1:37.23

8.

ALLAN MCNISH Toyota 1:38.41

9.

ANTHONY DAVIDSON BAR-Honda 1:38.57