OCTOBER 2, 2002

Wurz sets Barcelona record in new McLaren

The McLaren MP4-17B, the updated version of the current car in development for 2003, broke the Circuit de Catalunya track record in the hands of test driver Alexander Wurz Wednesday. The Austrian completed over seventy laps in the development car, running over two seconds faster than David Coulthard in another MP4-17B. Coulthard completed just under forty laps in his first outing in the new car.

Williams joined the Barcelona test Wednesday with test drivers Marc Gene and Antonio Pizzonia. Gene was running with a revised version of the FW24, while Pizzonia completed electronic work on the current car.

Ryan Briscoe and Stephane Sarrazin continued development work for Toyota Wednesday, and sometime BAR test driver Ryo Fukuda was given the opportunity to test for the Honda-powered team as well.