SEPTEMBER 1, 2000

Ralf Schumacher quickest in Friday testing at Monza

A number of teams completed their final day of testing at Monza on Friday ahead of the Italian Grand Prix with Ralf Schumacher the quickest driver in his BMW-Williams.

The German driver posted the quickest lap of the day, with a time of one minute and 25.502 seconds. Schumacher was fractionally faster than Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello, who spent the entire day working on the set-up of his Ferrari engine.

Jordan driver Jarno Trulli clocked the third fastest time, using the day to work on tire testing and running a total of 70 laps, with Pedro de la Rosa fourth in the Arrows.

Olivier Panis, who has signed for British American Racing for next season, was sixth fastest behind the Jordan of Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

World Championship title contender Michael Schumacher was also testing, but his day was interrupted when he was forced to pull over at the side of the track when the engine of his Ferrari car malfunctioned in the afternoon.

It fired up again moments later, but a problem was discovered and the power unit was changed. However, Schumacher still managed to go eighth fastest of the 13 drivers at the Italian track.

The final times are:

POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME
Ralf Schumacher BMW Williams 1:25.502
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:25.587
Jarno Trulli Jordan 1:26.076
Pedro De La Rosa Arrows 1:26.154
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan 1:26.302
Olivier Panis Ferrari 1:26.326
Jenson Button BMW Williams 1:26.724
Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:26.801
Pedro Diniz Sauber 1:27.084
10  Eddie Irvine Jaguar 1:27.147
11  Alexander Wurz Benetton 1:27.352
12  Mika Salo Sauber 1:27.552
13  Jean Alesi Prost 1:28.051