Jacques Villeneuve and his British American Racing-Supertec 01 set the fastest time today, during the first day of a major three-day Formula One test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. Villeneuve, who ran for a total of 65 untroubled laps, set his best time of 1 min 24. 80 secs while working through a busy technical programme. "It's been a good day," concluded Villeneuve. "We've been able to concentrate on set-ups instead of worrying about reliability. We've done some interesting work and found some good set-ups for the car. We also managed to improve our speed and covered quite a lot of laps. All of this is very positive, especially with Brazil coming up."

Unofficial lap times
Jacques Villeneuve (BAR)	1:24.80	65 laps
Alex Zanardi (Williams)	1:24.92	69 laps
Jarno Trulli (Prost)	1:24.94	36 laps
Ralf Schumacher (Williams)	1:24.98	60 laps
Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton)	1:25.04	36 laps
Ricardo Zonta (BAR)	1:25.14	40 laps
Alexander Wurz (Benetton)	1:26.20	11 laps
Stephane Sarrazin (Prost)	1:26.45	49 laps

Meanwhile Ferrari was testing on the Mugello track. Michael Schumacher concentrated his work on the set-up of the F399. He also tested some new aerodynamic solutions. Schumacher completed a total of 35 laps, with a best time of 1.26.801. Eddie Irvine took over in the afternoon. He did a total of 47 laps, the quickest in 1.27.150. Ferrari reported no technical problems.