Tuesday February 22nd, 2000

The last day of testing at Barcelona was blessed with fine weather and Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa took full advantage of the ideal conditions to run some fast laps in the second A21 chassis. During two new tyre runs in the morning Pedro first lowered the Barcelona testing lap record with a time of 1:19.90, but he soon surpassed even that on his second run by posting a 1:19.63.

The team then turned their attention to race setup and data collection, with de la Rosa completing several longer runs and in total he completed 49 laps. A scheduled engine change was completed in the afternoon which did reduce the amount of track time available to the team.

Arrows now returns to the UK to make final preparations for the first Grand Prix of the season. With a Press Launch on Monday (28/02) and a shakedown at Silverstone with all three cars on Tuesday, there are a busy few days ahead for the team.

Also running their last day were the Minardis, with Marc Gene running solo. The day's programme was carried out as scheduled; the driver recorded a series of long runs to find out the right setup. A number of modifications were tested in order to find out the car's best response on the track.

The Team is back to the Faenza-based headquarters pretty satisfied with the general outcome of the tests carried out over the week and with more than 1,700 Km run. The team said the car appears consistent and reliable, thus permitting the two drivers to work with the whole staff in a comfortable condition in order to develop the car's potential in the best way.

Minardi will take to track again on February 28th for a short test session at Mugello. Soon afterwards the three chassis will be ready to leave for the Australian Grand Prix.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver      Teams             Time     Laps
 1.  De la Rosa  Arrows-Supertec   1:19.630  49 
 2.  Gene        Minardi-Fondmetal 1:21.608  69 

The previous 2000 Barcelona lap record was 1:20.230 (P. de la Rosa);
the 1999 Barcelona lap record is 1:20.540 (R. Barrichello)