Wednesday January 26th, 2000

Olivier Panis was fastest during testing yesterday at a cold and snowy Barcelona.

There was no testing in the morning as snow covered the circuit; however, by the afternoon the snow had melted. McLaren test driver Panis was slightly faster than Pedro Diniz in the 2000 Sauber-Petronas, who worked on wet weather set-ups using the 2000 specification rain tyres in the miserable conditions. Teammate Mika Salo was third fastest in limited running as the Sauber team decided to change the engine in his car as a precautionary measure.

The two Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button completed their first serious laps in the new FW22, setting almost identical times. Reigning world champion Mika Hakkinen also tested but no lap times were registered.

Yesterday's times:

Pos  Driver        Team               Time      Laps
 1.  Panis         McLaren-Mercedes   1:32.29    26
 2.  Diniz         Sauber-Petronas    1:32.76    37
 3.  Salo          Sauber-Petronas    1:35.26    13
 4.  Button        Williams-BMW       1:35.88    19
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW       1:35.98     9
 6.  Hakkinen      McLaren-Mercedes    -      

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