Estoril test - day two: 8 February.

Veteran Jean Alesi put young upstart Enrique Bernoldi firmly in his place in Portugal by topping the times on day two of the Estoril test.

The Frenchman proved to be 1.5secs clear of the rest of the field as he again showed that the new Ferrari-powered AP04 lacked nothing for pace. Despite suspicions that the car may have been running on new tyres and with a low fuel load, Alesi still managed to amaze onlookers with his pace.

Closest to him on this occasion was Arrows rookie Bernoldi, who followed up his fastest time of day one by heading the rest of the field on day two in the older of the two Leafield cars on duty. Another wet start allowed the young Brazilian to get more wet weather running under his belt, before making use of the drying surface to complete some longer runs and practice pit-stops and simulated starts.

Team-mate Jos Verstappen had a less fruitful day in the new A22-AMT, completing just 14 laps after a hydraulic problem intervened after the morning session. The problem took too long to fix and the Dutchman was unable to retake the track in order to better his fifth-fastest time.

Separating the two orange-and-black cars were the Benettons of Mark Webber and Giancarlo Fisichella, The Australian, having his first meaningful outing with the Enstone operation this year, lapped over two seconds from Alesi's pace, despite using the older B200.

Webber, only called in to replace Jenson Button at the last minute after the Briton complained of stomach pains, still managed to
hold a 1.1secs advantage over team-mate Fisichella, however, after the Italian lost time to an engine change. His day to that point had been spent working through a programme of tests designed to optimise the engine mapping, but was ended early while the engineers worked on installing a new unit.

The test continues tomorrow [Friday]

Leading performances (8 February):

Jean Alesi Prost-Ferrari 1min 19.600secs 29 laps*Enrique Bernoldi Arrows-AMT 1min 21.506secs 84 lapsMark Webber Benetton-Renault 1min 21.925secs 40 lapsGiancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Renault 1min 23.055secs 34 laps*Jos Verstappen Arrows-AMT 1min 23.190secs 14 laps*

[* denotes 2001 car; all drivers on Michelin tyres except Bernoldi and Verstappen]