Wednesday August 30th, 2000

McLaren's David Coulthard set the fastest time on the second day of Formula One testing at the Monza circuit in Italy.

The Scot clocked the fastest lap during the morning session before heavy rain fell during the afternoon, making it impossible for the drivers to improve their times.

Ricardo Zonta was second fastest in his BAR-Honda, while Belgian Grand Prix winner Mika Hakkinen joined his teammate at the test, and set the third quickest time of the day.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Jordan, Jacques Villeneuve in the second BAR, and Jarno Trulli in the other Jordan were fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, showing their Honda engines are amongst the most powerful.

Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher also was present, the German being tenth fastest in the dry but lapping two seconds quicker than his nearest rival when rain hit the track.

A total of nineteen out of the 22 Grand Prix drivers tested at Monza, and only Prost's Jean Alesi, Jaguar's Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa from the Arrows team were absent.

The morning session had to be red flagged after Giancarlo Fisichella suffered a terrifying shunt when his Benetton's brakes failed to work at the Ascari chicane. The Italian had to lay on the ground for a couple of minutes before he was taken to the medical centre.

"I started braking but the pedal wasn't working. I only remember steering so that I crashed with the tail end of the car," said Fisichella, who only suffered bruises on his elbows and knees.

Yesterday, Ferrari's test driver Luca Badoer praised the modifications made to the track, but today both Coulthard and Frentzen criticised the revised first chicane.

"I don't want to criticise circuits that spend a lot of money but this isn't a racing curve," complained the Scot. "It's too tight and narrow, it won't make overtaking any easier and it could become dangerous."

"The chicane, which was modified in order to avoid bottlenecks at the start of the races, is now easier to cut, according to Frentzen. "At least ten cars are going to go straight on at the start," the German said. "Maybe we should start the race behind the safety car like last Sunday at Spa."

Teams will continue working tomorrow, for the third of the four day test at Monza.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Time    Laps   
 1.  Coulthard     McLaren-Mercedes    1:26.054 43
 2.  Zonta         BAR-Honda           1:26.264 42
 3.  Hakkinen      McLaren-Mercedes    1:26.339 32
 4.  Frentzen      Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:26.417 49
 5.  Villeneuve    BAR-Honda           1:26.506 65
 6.  Trulli        Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:26.557 47
 7.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW        1:26.634 15
 8.  Verstappen    Arrows-Supertec     1:26.701 52
 9.  Gene          Minardi-Fondmetal   1:26.764 63
10.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             1:26.842 65
11.  Button        Williams-BMW        1:26.847 28
12.  Wurz          Benetton-Playlife   1:26.918 28
13.  Salo          Sauber-Petronas     1:26.955 34
14.  Fisichella    Benetton-Playlife   1:27.029 29
15.  Barrichello   Ferrari             1:27.227 50
16.  Diniz         Sauber-Petronas     1:27.576 48
17.  Mazzacane     Minardi-Fondmetal   1:27.609 28
18.  Herbert       Jaguar-Cosworth     1:28.182 31
19.  Heidfeld      Prost-Peugeot       1:28.185 49

All Timing Unofficial