Tuesday February 8th, 2000

Three teams took to the dry but cool track on the first day of the planned six day Barcelona testing session this week, Jos Verstappen taking the fastest time of the day continuing his impressive first day in the car at the end of last week's test, his first run in a Formula One car for seven months.

The Dutchman ran some 42 laps throughout the day, one run thought to be on low fuel as he dropped his previous best lap times by almost two seconds to a 1:21.901. The overall handling of the car looked impressive around different parts of the circuit.

Alexander Wurz continued his test programme with the new Benetton B200, the Austrian running 67 laps for the day with a best of 1:22.273, best time to date with the new car at the Catalunya track.

Both Heinz Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli were on hand for the Jordan team, although Frentzen did not get a timed lap in before a gearbox sensor unit failed leaving him a spectator for the rest of the day.

A similar problem also sidelined Trulli's new car after just a few laps in the morning, but a spare part arrived mid morning from England which allowed him to run for most of the afternoon. He set a best time of 1:22.976 after a total of 29 laps, a second off the pace of Frentzen's best lap the previous week.

Both drivers are expected to continue chassis development over the next three days when Jordan are scheduled to finish testing on Friday.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Prost and McLaren are expected to join the testing programme with Jaguar and Sauber beginning on Thursday.

Today's times:

Pos Driver 
 1. Verstappen  Arrows-Supertec     1:21.901
 2. Wurz        Benetton-Playlife   1:22.273
 3. Trulli      Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:22.976
 4. Frentzen    Jordan-Mugen Honda  No time

The 1999 Barcelona lap record is 1:20.540 (R. Barrichello)