Barcelona test - day two: 9 July.

Williams-BMW moved back to its now accustomed place at the head of the Formula One field, as double race-winner Ralf Schumacher took the fastest time on day two of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

As he has in recent races, the German headed a Williams 1-2, with regular test driver Marc Gene second fastest overall ahead of Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello as the race contingent swung into action.

Schumacher replaced Estonian teenager Marko Asmer at the wheel of the second Williams at the test, working on tyre development, set-up and systems work for next weekend's Silverstone British Grand Prix, while Gene continued a similar programme, which he had started on Tuesday. Both drivers completed over 90 laps of the Barcelona circuit, interrupted only by a brief rain shower after lunch.

Barrichello replaced regular Ferrari tester Luca Badoer at the wheel of the sole F2003-GA, and continued the Italian's work on a development programme for the latest car designed to close the gap to Williams, as well as a Bridgestone programme. He ended the day with 81 laps under his belt, but lapped just under half a second shy of Gene who, in turn, was a similar distance behind pacesetter Schumacher.

McLaren had three drivers - Kimi Raikkonen, Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz - on hand for day two of its test, mixing the work between the existing MP4-17D which is expected to continue racing until the autumn at least, and the new MP4-18, which may not make a race appearance at all following Ron Dennis' comments about an MP4-19 being track-worthy by the end of the year. Raikkonen was the best of the bunch, clocking 1min 18.835secs for fourth place, while de la Rosa and Wurz - who was on hand on Tuesday without recording a timed lap - languished further down the order.

Nick Heidfeld replaced Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the wheel of the lone Sauber C22, and spent the day completing a scheduled race simulation and calibration of the latest 'C' specification Petronas V10 engine. The afternoon rain halted progress for a while, as the engine calibration programme could only be carried out in dry conditions, but Heidfeld returned to the track later in the day, where he worked on tyre evaluations for Hockenheim.

BAR arrived at the test with three drivers - Jenson Button, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson - who shared a workload comprising tyre evaluations for Silverstone, engine update data collection and a programme of aero revisions. Button completed the greatest distance of the three - 91 laps - but could not shake Sato from his tail in terms of times. Davidson brought up the rear of the enlarged 14-car field, but completed a useful 115 laps.

The greatest number of laps completed went to fellow Briton Allan McNish, however, as the Renault man covered a whopping 145 tours of the Catalan circuit. With the test being the last one before the enforced summer break, the team focused on tyre development programmes for the forthcoming races in Britain, Germany and Hungary. In spite of weather-related interruptions, the team covered the equivalent of two-and-a-half race distances, as well as conducting a routine engine change at
lunchtime. McNish also began work on the latest aerodynamic solutions to come out of Enstone.

Sandwiched between McNish and Sato was Toyota's Cristiano da Matta, who moved into his second day of running by continuing the tyre programme with Michelin and starting mechanical set-up work to optimise the car's balance with the new constructions. The team was also affected by the weather, with da Matta claiming that the track was never fully wet or dry when he ventured out.

Mark Webber began a three-day test for Jaguar, and narrowly edged out Jordan's Ralph Firman, who received a valuable outing in the Ford-powered EJ13. The British driver completed 64 laps working on general set-up work, aero and brake evaluations and Bridgestone tyre testing, but lost out on track time after a suspension problem reared its head.

Leading performances (9 July):

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1min 17.895secs 96 lapsMarc Gene Williams-BMW 1min 18.376secs 92 lapsRubens Barrichello Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 18.818secs 81 lapsKimi Raikk?nen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 18.835secs 83 lapsNick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas 1min 18.838secs 85 lapsJenson Button BAR-Honda 1min 18.956secs 91 lapsTakuma Sato BAR-Honda 1min 19.204secs 75 lapsCristiano da Matta Toyota-Toyota 1min 19.323secs 80 lapsAllan McNish Renault-Renault 1min 19.573secs 145 lapsMark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 19.736secs 86 lapsRalph Firman Jordan-Ford 1min 19.740secs 64 lapsPedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1min 19.933secs 38 lapsAlex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1min 20.211secs 32 lapsAnthony Davidson BAR-Honda 1min 20.547secs 115 laps

[* denotes cars on Bridgestone tyres; all others on Michelin]

Track / weather conditions: warm, overcast and damp.

Comparative lap times:

Spanish GP 2002:

Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1min 20.355secsPole position: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1min 16.364secs