Giancarlo Fisichella topped at the Barcelona circuit today. He was quicker than both McLaren drivers, also on Bridgestone tyres. Bridgestone really seem to go all the way this year, with the signing of two top teams, McLaren and Benetton, they are looking strong of topping the Goodyear teams.

Technical director Hirohide Hamashima of Bridgestone took the opportunity to defend his company against allegation that they are using data from the Goodyear teams, McLaren and Benetton, now on Bridgestone tyres. He stated: "Our two new teams have entirely respected the confidentiality required by their 1997 contracts. We have not been given any of our rivals' data at all."

The allegations came from Jean Alesi, who was dropped from the Benetton line-up, who has said that the Benetton team had behaved badly when they switched to Bridgestone.

Craig Wilson has joined the Williams team as Heinz-Harald Frentzen's race engineer. He used to work for Tyrrell.