Jaguar Valencia Testing notes 2002-02-07

Pedro de la Rosa continued Jaguar Racing's preparations for Melbourne on a blustery and event filled day of testing at Valencia on Thursday.

The Spaniard completed 38 laps of the circuit in setting a quickest lap time of 1m15.729s but much of the focus was on Arrows new boy Heinz Harald Frentzen and morning shunts involving Felipe Massa, Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato.

Frentzen was given his first taste of driving a Formula One car since the Japanese GP and was happy to be back although a software problem caused his Arrows Cosworth engine to cut out on his initial run.

"I'm in the process of familiarising myself with the car and with the team," said Frentzen. "It's nice to be back in the cockpit and racing for Arrows. It's taken a long time for this to happen but now things are getting better. I feel very sad for Prost. It was disappointing how it ended, but it's one of those things."

Fisichella is thought to have suffered brake failure into turn two before spinning backwards into the barriers. Sato then exited the circuit in exactly the same place, causing minor damage to his Jordan and causing the team to pack up early.

Felipe Massa was the third driver to leave the circuit, this time into turn one after damaging his front wing on debris from another car. Thankfully all three drivers were unharmed.

Nick Heidfeld once again finished the day on top of the time sheets in what is looking like an increasingly strong 2002 package from the Sauber team. The young German finished ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and team-mate Felipe Massa with the Williams' of Ralf Schumacher and Antonio Pizzonia fourth and fifth fastest respectively.

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