Kyalami Test - Day Four: 11 February.

The rain that has caused havoc across South Africa in the past week eased enough to allow both Williams and British American Racing to complete useful testing mileage this afternoon [Friday].


Ricardo Zonta led the way for BAR, despite an unfortunate pit-lane accident, and completed 71 laps in the process. The Brazilian saw off the challenge of both Williams drivers - Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button - recording a best lap of 1min 25.770secs to come out on top of the session. The new 002 ran cleanly throughout, giving the team great encouragement after the poor start to its maiden season in 1999.


"This morning was quite difficult," Zonta sighed, "The track conditions were changing all the time with the weather, which meant that we couldn't make any real performance comparisons. After lunch, however, with the weather improving and the circuit drying, we were able to fit grooved tyres and start to work on the chassis set-up.


"The only problem then was that there were still places that were quite wet in the middle of some of the fast corners, and that made it risky to go flat through them. I think today has been a good day for us, but we have still lost a lot of time because of the weather."


The Brazilian lost further time when he was involved in an incident in the pits, leading to two of his crew having to receive medical attention. Zonta was coming in to rehearse a fuel and tyre stop when a computer glitch saw the 002 overshoot the pit box and fell both Mark Willis and Trevor Bailey. Neither was seriously injured, however, are both are expected to make a full recovery.


Over at the Williams camp, Patrick Head was present to oversee the running of the new FW22 in the hands of Schumacher and the rookie Button. The technical director appeared pleased that the problems which interrupted testing in Spain last month seemed to have been cured, although neither driver was able to usurp Zonta during the afternoon session. Button, however, managed to all but match his team-mate's times, and did not repeat the excursion of day two.


"We seem to be managing the oil system problem that was present last month," Head said, "and we are confident that it will not be a problem when we race in Melbourne."


Because of the rain, both teams have decided to continue the test into next week.


"We have made the turn-around time to the next test - at Jerez later this month - a little tight for ourselves by extending our time here," admitted team manager Robert Synge, "but we've worked out a way to do it. We feel that, with better weather promised, our best bet is to stay put and try to get everything done that we had planned.


"Despite the appalling weather conditions, we have managed to run the equivalent of almost three full grand prix distances and, although performance testing wasn't on the cards most of the time, even running in the wet has proved to be valuable experience. There have been no mechanical problems at all, so we're delighted on that score, at least!"



Leading performances (11 February):


Ricardo Zonta BAR-Honda 1min 25.770secs

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1min 26.443secs

Jenson Button Williams-Button 1min 26.665secs


[Times courtesy of British American Racing]