Wednesday February 9th, 2000

Former world champion Michael Schumacher tested Ferrari's new Formula One car for the first time on Wednesday -- in the dark.

Schumacher completed just four laps of Ferrari's Fiorano circuit in the F1-2000 car shortly after 18:00pm. His team did not release his times.

"It's very important for us to have been able to do these four laps before the start of regular training tomorrow," the German said. "There were no problems with the car. The only thing that bothered me was the wind coming in under my helmet. I would have liked to have pushed a bit harder but the lack of light didn't allow me to," Schumacher said at the end of a day given over almost entirely to tests by his teammate Rubens Barrichello.

The Brazilian completed 40 laps, recording a best time of 1:05.989 seconds. Testing continues tomorrow at Fiorano.

The Fiorano lap record is 1:00.226 (L. Badoer)