BMW WilliamsF1 commences Barcelona Test

By Andrew Hooper
December 4 2002


	Barcelona Test 03:12:2002 - Day One of Three

	For the BMW WilliamsF1 team they would commence another round of testing this time at the Barcelona Catalunya circuit. On the first day of testing four drivers would take to the track for the team, with Nico Rosberg and Dirk Mueller joining regular drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gene. For Rosberg and Mueller their drivers were in recognition of their drives for BMW. At the end of the day Juan Pablo would finish with the second fastest time while Gene was down in fifth, 1.3secs. behind the fastest driver Jaguar's Mark Webber. For Nico Rosberg his day would see him finish eighth fastest while Mueller was tenth. Rosberg's would have a spin during his days testing. At the top of the times would be Jaguar's Mark Webber. As for team-mate Pizzonia his day would get off to a bad start when he was to crash his R3B. He was to crash into the barriers at Turn two during the morning session. “Antonio went off at turn two and hit the wall head on causing extensive damage to the car,” commented team spokesman Nav Sidhu. “Antonio is fine [and] the team is investing the cause of the accident.” Third would go to McLaren's Alexander Wurz while Gary Paffett was given the chance to test for the Woking based squad; setting the ninth fastest time. Olivier Panis tested the development Toyota chassis last week in Barcelona, but today reverted to the 2002 specification TF102 while team-mate Cristiano da Matta began a four day test at the French Paul Ricard circuit. Panis recorded the fourth fastest time of the day. For Renault, Fernando Alonso set the sixth fastest time ahead of Anthony Davison in the BAR Honda, Rosberg, Paffett and Muller while the team also gave young Frenchman Romain Dumas his debut F1 drive and 48 laps in the 2002 specification R202. For the WilliamsF1 team testing will continue again on Wednesday.

	P. Driver Team Engine Chassis Tyre Time Laps 1 M Webber Jaguar Cosworth R3 M 1:18.177 64 2 J P Montoya Williams BMW FW24 M 1:18.271 58 3 A Wurz McLaren Mercedes MP4/17D M 1:18.732 31 4 O Panis Toyota Toyota TF102B M 1:19.130 75 5 M Gene Williams BMW FW24 M 1:19.544 29 6 F Alonso Renault Renault R202B M 1:19.582 86 7 A Davidson BAR Honda BAR 004 B 1:20.414 92 8 N Rosberg Williams BMW FW24 M 1:21.058 36 9 G Paffett McLaren Mercedes MP4/17D M 1:21.484 14 10 D Muller Williams BMW FW24 M 1:21.584 44 11 R Dumas Renault Renault R202 M 1:22.298 48 12 A Pizzonia Jaguar Cosworth R3 M no time 3