Tuesday August 21st, 2001

Mika Hakkinen topped the timesheets at the Silverstone circuit on Tuesday, as the McLaren team got back to work after the disappointment of the Hungarian Grand Prix, where the Woking-based team saw rivals Ferrari taking both titles with four races left in the season.

Hakkinen, who finished fifth in Hungary, was nearly a second quicker than McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz as the Mercedes-powered team continued to work hard in order to retain second place in the Constructor's Championship ahead of Williams.

Amongst rumours about the likely exit of team boss Bobby Rahal from the team, three Jaguar drivers worked at the British circuit, with Irishman Eddie Irvine setting the third quickest time ahead of Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and German Andre Lotterer, who again tested for the Milton Keynes outfit.

The Arrows team were present with their two drivers Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi, both concentrating on software development and suspension set-up as well as aerodynamic testing. The Brazilian was the fastest of the two, with the Dutchman finishing at the bottom of the timesheets.

"I did 72 laps today and carried out a lot of development work which is good for the team," said Bernoldi. "We were mainly testing parts rather than general set-up, so hopefully this will be of benefit to us for the remaining races."

Testing at the Silverstone circuit will resume on Wednesday.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time   
 1.  Hakkinen      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)    1:23.223
 2.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes    (B)    1:24.175
 3.  Irvine        Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:24.797
 4.  de la Rosa    Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:25.461
 5.  Lotterer      Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:25.892
 6.  Bernoldi      Arrows-Asiatech     (B)    1:26.074
 7.  Verstappen    Arrows-Asiatech     (B)    1:26.269

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 17:32:43 GMT