Damon Hill had just one lap in the new Arrows before night fell over the Silverstone (England) circuit. The Arrows suffered a gearbox software problem at the factory, this delayed their arrival at the circuit until the late afternoon.

Hill showed himself, despite doing just one lap, very pleased: "We ran one lap and I am delighted with that. The team have been working extremely hard and they were prepared to run the car until it was absolutely ready, even though by then it was too dark to run properly. It is vital to do a shakedown before serious testing - at least now we know the car is up and running."

Team boss Tom Walkinshaw was also pleased: "We just wanted to make sure the wheels turned before it was sent to Spain."

The Arrows team will continue testing at Jerez (Spain).

Gerhard Berger has set a new record in the Benetton B197 at the Jerez (Spain) circuit: a 1m 21.245s. Mika Hakkinen was second on a sometimes wet sometimes dry track.

Michael Schumacher saw an Ferrari V10 replaced during today's session as a precaution, because it was not running as it should any more and a V10 went up in smoke yesterday. The German said about this: "I can't say what the problem was. The engine is being looked at."

Schumacher was not only working on the new F310B but he also performed a Goodyear tyre test.

Schumacher commented: "Despite the weather conditions we have had two positive days. Once again today we did not try and improve the set-up, concentrating on putting mileage on the car. The car's handling is similar to the F310 at the end of last season, but with slight understeer in the medium-slow corners."

Schumacher also said: "Reliability will be a key factor this year. It's not possible to know whether we can start winning right away and we won't really know that until we have tested against our competitors."

Nick Heidfeld may drive once for the McLaren-Mercedes team. Norbert Haug said: "We have contact with him and there is a possibility that he may have a test session.

Heidfeld competed in the German Formula Three Championship last year and ended third.