Thursday December 14th, 2000

McLaren's David Coulthard once again topped the time-sheet at Valencia, on the second day of testing with most of the Bridgestone-fitter teams.

Coulthard was followed by Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, who was working on setup and tyres testing for the 2001 season. "We've spent the past couple of weeks trying out various tyres that Bridgestone has prepared for the 2001 season," commented Luigi Mazzola, the Ferrari test team track engineer. "With the Valencia tests, we're at the half-way mark in the test programme which we'll complete next week at Barcelona with another set of solutions to try.

"Valencia's an interesting track from a technical point of view and resembles a number of the tracks on the calendar - I wouldn't exclude the possibility of our returning here during next season."

McLaren test driver Alex Wurz was third fastest in front of Jordan driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who concentrated on tyre testing during most of the session.

Arrrows' Jos Verstappen, also testing different tyre compounds throughout the day, edged Ricardo Zonta's Jordan for fifth.

Testing at Valencia continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver      Team-Engine       Tyres Time    
 1.  Coulthard   McLaren-Mercedes  (B)   1:14.690
 2.  Barrichello Ferrari           (B)   1:14.848
 3.  Wurz        McLaren-Mercedes  (B)   1:15.072
 4.  Frentzen    Jordan-Honda      (B)   1:15.154
 5.  Verstappen  Arrows-AMT        (B)   1:15:628
 6.  Zonta       Jordan-Honda      (B)   1:15.999

All Timing Unofficial