After only three full testing days since first turning a wheel, Jacques Villeneuve set the fastest time of today's testing at Spain, in the new BAR-Supertec. Despite losing some running time with mechanical problems, Villeneuve was able to complete 23 laps. In doing so, he set a fastest lap of 1 min 23.8 secs, 0.1 secs ahead of Williams driver, Alex Zanardi and Ferrari’s Eddie Irvine.

"The car is responding well to the set-ups," said Villeneuve. "On the whole, reliability is also improving. As with any new design, everything is new and has to be tested. Unlike the other teams, we cannot make comparisons with last year’s performance because this car is brand new. Already, though, it has improved from the initial test in December. We have been able to put in a good number of solid laps and the parts that caused a problem before are now reliable."

Driver	Team	Time
Jacques Villeneuve	BAR	1:23.8
Alex Zanardi	Williams	1:23.9
Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:23.9
Luca Badoer	Ferrari	1:24.1
Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows	1:24.2
Ralf Schumacher	Williams	1:24.3
Tora Takagi	Arrows	1:24.4
Jarno Trulli	Prost	1:24.8
Olivier Panis	Prost	1:25.4