Tuesday June 6th, 2000

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time on the first day of testing at Monza, today.

"I found a good set-up without making too many changes," said Rubens at the end of the day. "I worked on preparing for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Monza track is very similar to Montreal in terms of speed and the load put on the brakes. Tomorrow, I will do a long run test."

Barrichello was followed by McLaren's test driver, Olivier Panis, and a surprising third - Minardi's Gastone Mazzacane, setting a time 0.7s slower than Barrichello's.

Last today was Antonio Pizzonia, who is being evaluated by Benetton in contention for a test driver seat with the team. Pizzonia began by learning the circuit and tried a few set-up changes. Then a problem with the front suspension and chassis ended his running for the day. This chassis will have to return to the factory in Enstone for repair.

Today's session ended at 18:00 and will continue tomorrow at Monza.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver       Team                Time      Laps
 1.  Barrichello  Ferrari             1:24.778  56  
 2.  Panis        McLaren-Mercedes    1:25.037  54  
 3.  Mazzacane    Minardi-Fondmetal   1:25.477  58  
 4.  Trulli       Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:25.621  27  
 5.  Zonta        BAR-Honda           1:25.768  69  
 6.  Burti        Jaguar-Cosworth     1:25.776  35  
 7.  Salo         Sauber-Petronas     1:25.986  75  
 8.  Button       Williams-BMW        1:26.149  52  
 9.  de la Rosa   Arrows-Supertec     1:26.344  47  
10.  Manning      BAR-Honda           1:26.611  20  
11.  Fisichella   Benetton-Playlife   1:26.753  10  
12.  Junqueira    Williams-BMW        1:26.877  43  
13.  Heidfeld     Prost-Peugeot       1:27.455  18  
14.  Lemarie      BAR-Honda           1:27.595  46  
15.  Pizzonia     Benetton-Playlife   1:28.064  20