MARCH 8, 2001

Zonta on top in Silverstone test

JORDAN's Ricardo Zonta topped the times in the second day of testing at Silverstone on Thursday as he won the battle of the test-drivers in poor conditions.

JORDAN's Ricardo Zonta topped the times in the second day of testing at Silverstone on Thursday as he won the battle of the test-drivers in poor conditions.

Zonta, who joined the Silverstone-based team from British American Racing, posted a quickest lap time of one minute and 36.506 seconds during his 55-lap workout in the EJ11 as Jordan tested for the first day.

Benetton tester Mark Webber was marginally slower than Zonta in the wet conditions at the Northamptonshire circuit as he worked on software and tire development and brake work throughout the day.

Marc Gene continued for BMW-Williams but was almost one second slower than Zonta, while Jaguar test-drivers Pedro de la Rosa and youngster Tomas Scheckter shared duties for the Milton Keynes-based team.

Gene, who worked in two FW22's, said: "We had a very productive test today because we could complete the scheduled program in spite of the poor weather.

"Even if we had hoped that we could manage to have some laps in the dry, we still got the job done as we had lots of items to test in the wet."

Arrows new-boy Johnny Herbert, who topped the times on Wednesday, was slowest of the six drivers as he completed 18 laps in the A22 chassis.

SILVERSTONE TEST - THURSDAY, 8 MARCH 2001

POS

DRIVER ENTRANT TIME

1.

RICARDO ZONTA Jordan-Honda 1:36.506

2.

MARK WEBBER Benetton-Renault 1:36.784

3.

MARC GENE Williams-BMW 1:37.478

4.

PEDRO DE LA ROSA Jaguar 1:37.568

5.

TOMAS SCHECKTER Jaguar 1:38.229

6.

JOHNNY HERBERT Arrows-Asiatech 1:38.565