Badoer top first day Barcelona testing

Testing kicked off at the hot and sunny Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona today with six drivers from five teams carrying out the on-track activities. Ferrari tester Luca Badoer topped the times with a 1:18.179 in the F2003-GA, working on tyres aerodynamics and electronics.

Ferrari also had Felipe Massa in action at Mugello, the young Brazilian testing aerodynamics and mechanical components in an F2002 chassis.

Second fastest at Barcelona was Williams tester Marc Gene. The team also tried out Estonian Marko Asmer, who currently races in Formula Renault V6 and previously carried out straight-line tests at Vairano for Williams last month.

"Today was the beginning of a four day test at the Circuit de Catalunya, our principal aim for the week being tyre development work with Michelin and general set-up comparisons of the car for the British Grand Prix," said test team manager Tim Newton.

"Marc Gené and Marko Asmer performed testing duties for the team with Marc spending the day on tyre development and evaluation, completing over 100 laps, whilst Marko concentrated on aero mapping, working under a speed limitation. Marko completed 98 laps collating valuable aero data for the team."

Third quickest was Sauber's Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who tried out front wing configurations and tested Bridgestone tyres. Nick Heidfeld will take over tomorrow and youngster Neel Jani will complete the four-day programme on Friday.

Cristiano da Matta set the fifth best time for Toyota; the Brazilian worked on set up and completed several long runs. Test driver Ricardo Zonta is on duty at the team headquarters in Cologne, running an aerodynamics programme. Pedro de la Rosa was fifth quickest in the McLaren MP4-18, ahead of Asmer. Alex Wurz was present in a second MP4-18 but did not set a time.