Saturday February 12th, 2000

David Coulthard continued to set the day's pace on Saturday during the week's six day Formula One testing programme in Barcelona, the Scot running 70 laps with a best of 1:21.75s with the '99 car. The five teams running on Saturday got their first chance of wet weather testing when the day started with a wet track which dried out in the afternoon to allow some quick laps on dry weather tyres.

Pedro de la Rosa had a good day with the Arrows running more than a race distance for some 73 laps for the day and the second fastest time of 1:21.83s. Although the team is still awaiting the high downforce aerodynamics for the car, the new Arrows continues to set competitive times with Jos Verstappen overall quickest of the week at 1:20.61s.

Pedro Diniz was also able to complete a planned race distance with the Sauber in a trouble free day over 89 laps with the best time at 1:22.54s. Just behind Diniz in fourth spot for the day was team-mate Mika Salo who did only 28 laps.

Mika Hakkinen ran just 27 laps for the day after his epic 93 laps with the old car the previous day, his best time a 1:22.67s in the new car slower than his previous day's best with the old car and that of Coulthard with the new car.

Johnny Herbert and Eddie Irvine continued their test programme for Jaguar, their cars now equipped with power steering. They each completed just 34 and 37 laps respectively, Herbert setting a best of 1:22.89s, Irvine a 1:23.81s.

Giancarlo Fisichella took advantage of the wet track to try some wet set-ups for the Benetton, the Italian very happy with the performance setting a best of 1:23.81s for the day with a total of 37 laps.

The Jordan and Prost teams finished testing on Friday night with more testing planned next week in Barcelona, other teams moving to the Jerez circuit for next week's testing programme.

Today's Times:

Pos  Driver       Team               Time     Laps
 1.  Coulthard    McLaren-Mercedes   1:21.75   70 
 2.  de la Rosa   Arrows-Supertec    1:21.83   73 
 3.  Diniz        Sauber-Petronas    1:22.54   89 
 4.  Salo         Sauber-Petronas    1:22.61   28 
 5.  Hakkinen     McLaren-Mercedes   1:22.67   27 
 6.  Herbert      Jaguar-Cosworth    1:22.90   34 
 7.  Fisichella   Benetton-Playlife  1:23.55   27 
 8.  Irvine       Jaguar-Cosworth    1:23.81   31 

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