Olivier Panis broke the record set by Jacques Villeneuve today. The Frenchman clocked a fastest time of 1m 18.38s, almost two seconds faster than his team-mate Shinji Nakano and almost four seconds faster than World Champion Damon Hill in the Arrows. Hill was fourth and last.

Michael Schumacher finally had a trouble free day today. He was the fastest man on the track with a 1m 20.23s. Hakkinen was second and Irvine third.

Schumacher commented at the end of the day: "This was a positive day for the team. We made a good step ahead in developing the new car".

Ferrari continued to do some set-up work and get to know the new car.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen drove just 4 laps in the Williams-Renault but he still was the fastest of the four teams testing at the circuit.

Jos Verstappen had some differential problems and spun a few times because of this.

Mika Salo said after his test: "The weather was not really good on Friday. There was a strong wind which blew a lot of dust across the track but thankfully is was dry. Despite this we learned a lot about the car. It is very responsive and the engine feels strong"