Kyalami test - day five: 12 February.

Ralf Schumacher set a scorching new lap record in South Africa yesterday as Williams again led the way in the Kyalami heat.

The Grove team put both its drivers below the existing benchmark for the Transvaal venue, as Juan Montoya all but matched his German team-mate for pace. Lapping within one-hundredth of a second of each other, the Williams duo left Jacques Villeneuve in their wake as they continued to dominate proceedings in glorious weather.

Schumacher completed his time with a brand new engine, having had the unit changed after completing a race simulation run before lunch. Montoya, too, had a new BMW installed during the day, and was happy to finally be learning the circuit.

The team, however, overlooked the new records in favour of focusing on the workload that it has already got through in preparation for the opening grand prix of the season in what is likely to be an equally hot Melbourne.

"We've had a productive three days," confirmed engineer Sam Michael, "We have covered quite a job list that has included mechanical set-up, aerodynamics, engine development, cooling specs, differentials and tyre compound testing. With Melbourne in mind, we have generated very useful data about the FW23's behavioural characteristics in high temperature conditions, and we are aiming to conclude our last day here tomorrow with more race simulation exercises supported with engine development work on both cars "

Villeneuve, despite being some 1.5secs off the pace of the two Williams cars, was not too displeased, as BAR concentrated on putting race miles on the new 003 in preference to going for outright performance. The Canadian completed over 100 laps during the day, twenty more than Schumacher and almost fifty more than Montoya, as the Brackley team strove for reliability.

Leading performances (12 February):

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1min 19.517secs 83 laps*Juan Montoya Williams-BMW 1min 19.526secs 60 laps*Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda 1min 21.184secs 109 laps*

[* denotes 2001 car; Villeneuve on Bridgestone tyres]