Hakkinen heads the field
Driving the 1998 McLaren MP14, Mika Hakkinen dominated the second day of testing at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit, a full second than his closest rival on only his eighth lap of 43 for the day. David Coulthard managed 45 laps in the new McLaren MP4/14 to-day after the team had worked out most of it's teething problems encountered yesterday. Coulthard set a best of 1m 23,944 seconds to record the third fastest time of the day in the sunny , but cool and windy conditions.

Engine problems for Stewart
Johnny Herbert set an impressive second fastest time of the day for the Stewart team with a 1m 23,354 secs on lap 50 of his day's 51 laps total. However, the team were concerned about engine reliability problems after two engines failed to-day following another yesterday. An early blow-up saw Rubens Barrichello sit out most of the day as the team did not have another spare engine available. Barrichello eventually took over Herbert's car to set his best of 1m 24,987 secs for the day, but on the next lap the engine in that car also blew up. Because of a shoratge of engines for the upcoming Australian Grand Prix, the team decided not to wait for a replacement on its way to Barcelona, but return to base where Ford Cosworth can work on the problem before the first race.

Benetton fourth and fifth
Alexander Wurz and Giancarlo Fisichella set the fourth and fifth fastest times of the day in their new Benetton B199 chassis, Fisichella's testing cut short by an engine problem. Wurz worked on different set-ups including the new front end traction system.

Verstappen goes well for Honda
Jos Verstappen continued the test program with the Honda 01 test car running a reliable 68 laps and what was to be the sixth fastest time 20 laps into the morning session.

Alesi sets seventh time for Sauber
Jean Alesi set an early seventh fastest time of the day with the new Sauber C18, but ended his practice early when an engine problem left him stranded out on the circuit. After an eraly spin had cost him one set of tyres, he also complained that the two other sets remaining were not enough to finish the day. Pedro Diniz ran the second new Sauber for the first time and was delayed by teething problems which included a punctured tyre caused by rubbing against the car's rear difuser. He was back on the track for more running later completing 43 laps and 13th best time of 1m 26,318 secs.

Hill fastest in new Jordan
Driving the new Jordan-Mugen Honda 199 Damon Hill was half a second faster than his team-mate Heinz Harald Frentzen who was still testing the older 198 chassis. Despite a minor gearbox problem, Hill set 67 laps for the day with a best of 1m 24,957 secs working on engine mapping for Honda as well as general chassis set up. Frentzen tried different chassis set-ups completeing 56 laps for 12th time of the day. He is expected to try the new car for the first time on Thursday.

De la Rosa sets lap record for Arrows
Pedro de la Rosa was running the Arrows A18 chassis to-day setting the most laps of the day during 95 laps of race distance and engine testing. He also practiced several starts and had a couple of minor spins during the day. At the end of the day he was joined by Mika Salo who gave the new Arrows A19 its first run completing 8 laps and a best time of 1m 27,669 secs. There is still no decision about the Arrows drivers for next year, while Tom Walkinshaw is expected to be taking a less active roll in the team with Roger Silman coming in from his Le Mans team to act as managing director of the team.