Gerhard Berger is really getting it all right in his Benetton-Renault at the tests on the Estoril (Portugal) circuit. He was fastest with a time of 1m 20.295s. This time is even faster than the fastest time set so far this year by Jacques Villeneuve in the Williams-Renault. Mika Hakkinen was second with almost a gap of a second to Berger with a time of 1m 21.24s. Ralf Schumacher was third with a best time of 1m 21.45s.

Eddie Irvine was testing a new evolution Ferrari engine but did not do better than sixth of the day.