JANUARY 31, 2002

Sauber leads the field in Barcelona

SAUBER continued to impress during testing Thursday in Barcelona, where Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa out-paced the rest of the testing field in new Sauber-Petronas C21s in qualifying trim.

"This has been a satisfactory test for us," said Heidfeld. "Today I concentrated on set-up work for qualifying in Melbourne, and despite a minor driveshaft problem this morning we were able to do more work than yesterday. The car was well balanced in qualifying trim and it's always nice to be fastest, but what will really count is what happens at the first race."

Marc Gene, Juan-Pablo Montoya and Antonio Pizzonia conducted tests for Williams. Montoya lapped behind the wheel of the new FW24, while the team's two test drivers ran FW23s.

Thursday saw the Toyota teammates Alan McNish and Mika Salo record some respectable times at the Spanish circuit. It was the team's fourth and final day of their program in Barcelona.

Takuma Sato and Giancarlo Fisichella tested for Jordan, and Fernando Alonso made his debut as test driver for Renault alongside regular team driver Jarno Trulli.

BARCELONA TEST - THURSDAY, 31 JANUARY 2002

POS

DRIVER ENTRANT TIME

1.

NICK HEIDFELD Sauber-Petronas 1:17.891

2.

FELIPE MASSA Sauber-Petronas 1:18.605

3.

MARC GENE Williams-BMW 1:19.233

4.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA Williams-BMW 1:19.680

5.

ALAN MCNISH Toyota 1:19.831

6.

MIKA SALO Toyota 1:20.245

7.

TAKUMA SATO Jordan-Honda 1:20.351

8.

ANTONIO PIZZONIA Williams-BMW 1:20.557

9.

JARNO TRULLI Renault 1:20.834

10.

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA Jordan-Honda 1:21.091

11.

FERNANDO ALONSO Renault 1:21.440