Thursday January 27th, 2000

The Sauber duo of Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo topped the time sheet of today's testing at Barcelona - Diniz slightly faster than Salo. They came ahead of McLaren drivers - Olivier Panis and Mika Hakkinen, and ahead of the Williams teammates, this time Ralf Schumacher outpacing Jenson Button.

Both Sauber drivers were testing the 2000 car while the McLaren drivers ran with a 1999 chasiss fitted with a 2000 engine. The Williamses ran the FW22 for Schumacher and an FW21 with a BMW engine for Button.

Testing at Barcelona continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team               Time    
 1.  Diniz         Sauber-Petronas    1:21.45 
 2.  Salo          Sauber-Petronas    1:21.47    
 3.  Panis         McLaren-Mercedes   1:21.48  
 4.  Hakkinen      McLaren-Mercedes   1:21.63  
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW       1:23.15
 6.  Button        Williams-BMW       1:23.49 

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