Jerez Test - Day One: 14 January.

While all eyes were focused on the shootout between Jenson Button and Bruno Junqueira for a seat alongside Ralf Schumacher at Williams next season, the business of Formula One testing continued unabated at Jerez.


David Coulthard proved to be quickest once again for the McLaren team, clocking up a best time of 1min 24.817secs around the southern Spanish circuit. The Scot completed 62 laps in the course of the day, and wound up two-tenths clear of nearest rival, Luciano Burti.


The young Brazilian was having another run in Jaguar's new R1, and outshone race regular Eddie Irvine to set second fastest time of the day. Burti's best of 1min 25.010secs was also good enough to eclipse the second McLaren of Olivier Panis, which took third spot and separated the Brazilian from his Irish team-mate.


Pedro Diniz and Ricardo Zonta completed the list of drivers with times under their belts, driving for Sauber and BAR respectively. Diniz suffered two off-road excursions during the day, but bounced back to set a best time of 1min 25.968secs to finish comfortably ahead of his compatriot.


Ironically, the main attraction at Jerez failed to materialise, as Button was restricted to just a handful of uncompetitive laps by a malfunctioning Williams, and Junqueira was prevented from even taking to the track for the same reasons.



Leading performances (14 January):


David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes* 1min 24.817secs

Luciano Burti Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 25.010secs

Olivier Panis McLaren-Mercedes* 1min 25.324secs

Eddie Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 25.605secs

Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1min 25.968secs

Ricardo Zonta BAR-Honda 1min 26.623secs

Jenson Button Williams-BMW* no time


[* denotes 1999 chassis]