Benetton Silverstone testingn 2001-09-18

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team were at Silverstone on Tuesday for the first day of a three day test there, ahead of flying to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix. Jenson Button was on hand in the B201 alongside the team's ...

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team were at Silverstone on Tuesday for the first day of a three day test there, ahead of flying to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix.

Jenson Button was on hand in the B201 alongside the team's test-driver Mark Webber, and Technical Director Mike Gascoyne explained afterwards that the team had made progress, despite difficult weather conditions.

"We experienced a typical Silverstone day with damp weather conditions which made testing difficult," said Gascoyne.

"However, with Mark we carried out a programme of launch control development for wet weather together with other electronic development aid for next year.

"Jenson was running with the B-spec engine that we had in qualifying during the Italian Grand Prix. He completed 29 laps before stopping with a minor engine problem.

"We conducted several evaluations of wet weather tyres but the conditions made meaningful comparison difficult, but overall we had as productive a day as you can have under these weather conditions," he added. <pre> Unofficial times from Silverstone:

Pos Driver Team Time 1 Jean Alesi Jordan 1m34.03s 2 Alexander Wurz McLaren 1m34.10s 3 Jenson Button Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport 1m34.67s 4 Eddie Irvine Jaguar 1m34.82s 5 Mark Webber Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport 1m34.96s 6 Olivier Panis BAR 1m35.09s 7 Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar 1m35.27s 8 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan 1m36.02s