Barcelona test - day two: 13 December.

The Michelin teams continued their first solo test of the winter at Barcelona today, with Ralf Schumacher taking day two honours for Williams.

The German proved that Giancarlo Fisichella's performance for Benetton on Tuesday was no fluke by also ducking well under the 1min 21secs barrier, and breaking his own brother's pole position mark, set back in last May's Spanish GP meeting.

By the end of the day, Schumacher Jr had lowered the benchmark for the session to 1min 20.5secs, a time he set in the cooler morning session. That was sufficient to edge out Fisichella's best effort - a 1min 20.87secs - despite only completing 24 laps on the day, as he was forced out of action by the onset of flu'. His role in the third and final day of testing will now be shared between team-mates Montoya and Gene.

Fisichella ran around 30 laps more than his former Jordan team-mate, but finished his work by the lunch interval so that Benetton could run other drivers in his car. Long runs were the order of the day for the Italian, as he worked on tyre comparisons and minor set-up work, before handing over to Spanish rookie Fernando Alonso for the afternoon session.

The Spa F3000 winner was allowed to complete 30 laps of his own as part of an agreement between Benetton and Minardi to help him gain enough mileage to qualify for a superlicence for 2001. The move added weight to the suggestion that Alonso would form an integral part of the Italian team's line-up next year, despite his contract having been acquired by Benetton MD Flavio Briatore, and he was able to record a respectable best lap of 1min 23.01secs - ahead of both Prost drivers.

Between Fisichella and Alonso, team-mate Jenson Button neatly separated the rest of the Jaguar and Williams runners, taking fifth best time of the day into the bargain. In contrast to his two test partners, the Briton ran all day, focusing on compound comparisons and set-up work with the Renault-powered B200.

Eddie Irvine proved, once again, to be the fastest of the two Jaguar drivers on show, clocking 1min 20.95secs to lie fractionally behind Fisichella at the end of the session. Team-mate Luciano Burti spent another day working through a set-up programme with the R1B, recording a best time almost two seconds adrift of the Irishman.

Either side of Button lay the Williams-BMWs of Juan Montoya and Marc Gene. The Colombian got the better of the man he replaced at the Grove team by a scant tenth, while Gene - in a more substantial, 43-lap, run than of late - was considerably slower than the leading runners as he focused on another day working with the latest German V10.

Completing the ten-car field, Prost ran two Peugeot-engined AP03s for Jean Alesi and F1 aspirant Enrique Bernoldi. The French veteran fared better than his Brazilian partner on this occasion, but only by three-tenths as Bernoldi acquitted himself well on his first day with the team.

The test continues tomorrow [Thursday] with several drivers likely to make their first appearance of the test. Andre Lotterer and Tomas Scheckter are both in attendance with Jaguar, while Prost is understood to be giving Oriol Servia and, possibly, both Gaston Mazzacane and Antonio Pizzonia a run in the AP03.

Leading performances (13 December):

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1min 20.50secs 24 lapsGiancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Renault 1min 20.87secs 54 lapsEddie Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 20.95secs 66 lapsJuan Montoya Williams-BMW 1min 21.01secs 50 lapsJenson Button Benetton-Renault 1min 21.16secs 63 lapsMarc Gene Williams-BMW 1min 22.72secs 43 lapsLuciano Burti Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 22.79secs 43 lapsFernando Alonso Benetton-Renault 1min 23.01secs 30 lapsJean Alesi Prost-Peugeot 1min 23.32secs 72 lapsEnrique Bernoldi Prost-Peugeot 1min 23.61secs 54 laps

[all drivers on Michelin tyres]