Barcelona day three testing

McLaren's David Coulthard again topped the testing times at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today, completing 62 laps and setting a best of 1.21.157; over 4 seconds faster than Toyota's Allan McNish who was the slowest of the day.

Rain caused problems in the early part of the day and although the weather cleared briefly in the afternoon, the downpour returned later. 18 drivers in total took part and the first casualty was Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa, driving the R2C, who stopped on track with an electrical problem.

Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren only managed one trip round the circuit before retiring to the pits with an unknown fault that prevented the Finn being able to get much experience with his new team.

Ferrari's Luciano Burti set the fourth fastest time before ending up in the gavel. Sauber's Felipe Massa also visited the gravel, although the problem was deemed to be with the car rather than Massa.

Jordan joined the testing today with Giancarlo Fisichella alongside Takuma Sato who was having his first run for the team, completing 65 laps with the 11th fastest time. The fastest of the new 2002 cars was Jacques Villeneuve's BAR004 in 12th, whilst team mate Olivier Panis took the track in the 003.

The varying conditions gave drivers a chance to test intermediate tyres, especially helpful to McLaren who recently made the switch to Michelin.