Thursday May 25th, 2000

Arrows' Jos Verstappen was fastest at the second day of testing at Valencia yesterday.

Verstappen was almost a second faster than the rest of the drivers, headed by Giancarlo Fisichella in his Benetton.

Verstappen completed only 58 laps due to mechanical problems and the Fisichella-Trulli incident, working on race set-up work which included tyre testing for Bridgestone. It was during these tyre tests that Verstappen set his fastest time of the day, 1:15.95. Today, Pedro de la Rosa will take over for the final day of the test.

Benetton continued testing, with three drivers at work. Giancarlo Fisichella worked on set-up for the Monaco Grand Prix, setting the second fastest lap of the day before being involved in an accident with Jarno Trulli, when Fisichella came across a slow moving Trulli who was on an out lap. Due to the narrowness of the track, Fisichella was unable to avoid Trulli, hitting the back of the Jordan.

Fisichella only suffered minor bruising to his thumb, but the car was badly damaged, cancelling Alexander Wurz testing programme. Meanwhile, Giorgio Pantano continued his test run in the second car before handing over to Antonio Pizzonia for the latter's first run in a Formula One car. Pizzonia will continue at the test today.

Sauber continued its testing for Monaco, working on aerodynamics and tyre evalution, with Pedro Diniz setting the seventh fastest time while completing 102 laps of the circuit. Mika Salo completed one lap of the circuit in a hire car to familiarise himself for testing today.

Meanwhile, Luca Badoer completed 101 laps at Fiorano, with a best lap of 1:01.468 while successfully conducting set-up and aerodynamic tests, with Michael Schumacher taking over the testing today.

Yesterday's times from Valencia:

Pos  Driver        Team                Time    
 1.  Verstappen    Arrows-Supertec     1:15.95
 2.  Fisichella    Benetton-Playlife   1:16.93
 3.  Herbert       Jaguar-Cosworth     1:17.58
 4.  Trulli        Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:17.70
 5.  Pizzonia      Benetton-Playlife   1:17.83
 6.  Frentzen      Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:17.89
 7.  Diniz         Sauber-Petronas     1:17.94
 8.  Pantano       Benetton-Playlife   1:18.01