Tuesday April 16th, 2002

Formula One teams got back to action only two days after the San Marino Grand Prix, kicking off a three-day test at the Silverstone circuit in order to prepare for the upcoming race in Spain next week.

Briton Jenson Button, who finished in fifth place at the Imola race last Sunday, continued with the Renault team's impressive form this year by posting the quickest time of the session on Tuesday at wheel of the Michelin-shod R202 chassis.

Button completed a total of 23 laps, and finished only a hundred of a second ahead of Irishman Eddie Irvine with the Jaguar R3.

German Nick Heidfeld was third quickest with the Sauber C21 after 52 laps, concentrating on aerodynamic set-up.

"This is another very important test for us giving Sauber an opportunity to continue development on aerodynamic set-ups, which we will be using in Barcelona next weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix and test new mechanical parts," said Sauber's race engineer Remi Decorzent.

"At the same time tomorrow, we also have an intensive programme of Bridgestone tyre development and evaluation to work through."

Heidfeld's teammate Felipe Massa, meanwhile, was running at the Vairano track in Italy, and will continue there tomorrow, conducting aerodynamic tests, before replacing the German at Silverstone on Thursday.

British test driver Anthony Davidson and Japanese Takuma Sato were in action for both the Honda-powered cars, the British American Racing driver edging the Jordan star by less than one tenth of a second.

"It was good weather today which is unusual for Silverstone," said Sato. "Overall it was good work but a few small problems cost us some time during the session.

"We did system checks on the new Honda engine and tried a new front suspension configuration, which works well. There are lots of things to do and this is a start. Today was a good base for the rest of the test."

Spaniard Marc Gene, who suffered a heavy crash at the British circuit today, could only complete 13 laps with the Williams after his accident. The test driver walked away with only a few bruises, but could not continue working in the afternoon.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen was in charge of testing for the Arrows team, who finally got back to testing their A21 after missing most of the sessions in March. Frentzen completed 29 laps and was only quicker than Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia in the second Williams.

Testing at Silverstone continues on Wednesday.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Button        Renault             (M)    1:22.947  23
 2.  Irvine        Jaguar-Cosworth     (M)    1:22.957  36
 3.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Petronas     (B)    1:22.990  52
 4.  Davidson      BAR-Honda           (B)    1:23.942  48
 5.  Sato          Jordan-Honda        (M)    1:24.032  46
 6.  Gene          Williams-BMW        (M)    1:24.347  13
 7.  Frentzen      Arrows-Cosworth     (B)    1:24.450  29
 8.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW        (M)    1:24.713  14

All Timing Unofficial