Just a few days after the Luxembourg Grand Prix, and the Formula One circus is back to testing, with several teams sending their drivers to the Catalunya circuit, in Barcelona, spain. On the first day of testing, CART Champion Alex Zanardi made his return to Formula One, when he tested for his next year's team Williams. Another new memeber of F1 was the BAR team who is testing a revised 1998 Tyrrell with its official test driver Boullion.
Today, on the first day of testing, Michael Schumacher was the fastest driver, a little under a second ahead of David Coulthard. Both drivers concentrated on preparations for Suzuka, and mainly ran tyre tests throughout the day.
Driver Team Best time laps M. Schumacher Ferrari 1.22.628 87 D. Coulthard McLaren 1.23.297 99 J-P Montoya Williams 1.24.521 53 G. Fisichella Benetton 1.24.605 55 A. Zanardi Williams 1.24.742 78 A. Wurz Benetton 1.24.895 41 J. Muller Sauber 1.24.984 92 L. Badoer Ferrari 1.25.368 14 R. Barrichello Stewart 1.25.529 69 J-C Boullion BAR 1.25.865 48 Weather: air temp. 20-25 C, track 23-40 C, sunny
Testing will resume tomorrow.