Wednesday January 26th, 2000

World Champion Mika Hakkinen topped the time sheets on the second day of this week's testing at Barcelona. The Finn, who returned to the cockpit yesterday after a break of almost three months, was a fraction faster than McLaren test driver Olivier Panis.

Weather conditions at Barcelona slightly improved today, after snow prevented the teams from testing yesterday morning. Although it continued raining in the morning today, by the afternoon the drivers were able to run on grooved dry-weather tyres.

Sauber drivers Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo also continued testing the team's 2000 car today, Diniz finishing ahead of Salo by almost half a second. Likewise, Williams new-boy Jenson Button was able to outpace his teammate, Ralf Schumacher by a second. Button was driving the FW21 which was fitted with a BMW engine while Schumacher was driving the new FW22.

Testing continues at Barcelona tomorrow.

Today's Times:

Pos  Driver        Team               Time    
 1.  Hakkinen      McLaren-Mercedes   1:22.044
 2.  Panis         McLaren-Mercedes   1:22.181
 3.  Diniz         Sauber-Petronas    1:23.209
 4.  Salo          Sauber-Petronas    1:23.695
 5.  Button        Williams-BMW       1:24.057
 6.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW       1:25.065

The 1999 Barcelona lap record is 1:20.540 (R. Barrichello)