Magny-cours Test - Day Two: 17 June.

David Coulthard was pushed from the top of the timesheets on day two in France by McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen and Ferrari's Eddie Irvine - who recorded identical laps.


The Scot dropped to third overall on the second day of running at Magny-Cours, 8/100ths of a second behind the pacesetters. Both Hakkinen and Irvine ran in excess of a grand prix distance as they worked on set-up solutions for next week's race - the Finn completing 116 laps - before setting a best time of 1min 17.24secs.


Irvine's Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher would have completed more than his eventual 61 laps had he not suffered a major engine failure with the new 048B unit used for qualifying in Montreal. Although the engine is still in its developmental stages, the problem convinced Schumacher that it is not ready for anything more than flying laps.


"Unfortunately, we will have to wait for another one or two events before we will be able to use this engine for a race," he said, "I just hope that today's problem was just specifically for this engine and not due to the new design."


Damon Hill also turned out at the test, in his first test since announcing his retirement on Wednesday. The Jordan driver worked on suspension, steering and tyre set-ups throughout the day, his workload extended because of the absence of injured team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen. It was not a good day for Hill, however, as he propped up the final list of drivers.


Leading performances (18 June):


Eddie Irvine Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 17.24secs 82 laps

Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 17.24secs 116 laps

David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1min 17.32secs 58 laps

Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 1min 17.49secs 47 laps

Alex Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1min 17.53secs 47 laps

Michael Schumacher Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 17.84secs 61 laps

Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1min 17.98secs 79 laps

Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1min 18.40secs 54 laps

Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1min 18.59secs 60 laps

Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1min 18.59secs 22 laps

Alex Zanardi Williams-Supertec 1min 18.68secs 54 laps

Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1min 18.75secs 10 laps

Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 1min 18.76secs 56 laps

Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1min 18.81secs 49 laps

Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 1min 19.02secs 21 laps

Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen 1min 19.10secs 47 laps