Nordic Racing team official test

Official test: Silverstone, England. Monday 12th / Tuesday 13th February 2001.

The two-day test at Silverstone marked the last opportunity for the Coca-Cola Nordic Racing team drivers Justin Wilson and Tomas Enge to run before the season kicks into life in Brazil on the 31st March.

Monday, the opening day of the test, started with dry and bright weather and saw Justin topping the times as fastest driver throughout the morning.

However, just as the afternoon session was about to start, the heavens opened. With the circuit awash under heavy rain, few drivers opted to leave the pit area, although Tomas did decide to before some wet set-up laps. "The car felt really good this morning and although I was not pushing to the limit, the fastest times just kept coming," said Justin Wilson. "It is a shame that it rained so much in the afternoon, although this did give the team the opportunity to work on a wet weather set-up."

Tuesday, the second and final day, saw the track still very wet from overnight rain. Both Tomas and Justin carried on with their wet set-up practice throughout the morning hoping that the circuit would be drier in the afternoon. "We lost a lot of time yesterday with the wet weather," explained Tomas, "and although our objective was not to set fast times all the time, it would have been nice to have some more dry runs before Brazil."

Team Principal Derek Mower added: "It was a shame that the two days proved to be so wet, although with testing in England this early in the year, it was only to be expected. Our goals for this test was not to just send Tomas and Justin out to perform fast lap after lap. We had a lot of development and set-up work to finish before the opening round in Brazil and this was our immediate concern. Having said that, Justin proved once again that he is one of the fastest drivers on the circuit, topping the times in the first morning session for almost it's duration. At one stage in the wet he was 3 seconds quicker than any other driver on the track."

Team Manager Chris Mower said: "A good test, despite the limited dry running time. Now we move on to the season opener in Brazil where, I am confident that both Justin and Tomas will be pushing each other hard in qualifying."

A full report from both qualifying and the opening race will be available, along with times, on www.nordicracing.com

-Nordic Racing