Successful First Test Completed

Aero Testing today
By Phil Huff
December 5 2002

The first Sauber Petronas test for 2003 has finished, with team members happy about the results so far. Nick Heidfeld again drove for day three of the Valencia test, managing to set the fifth fastest time of the day.

His effort of 1:13.725 was only two tenths of the pace of long term BMW Williams driver Marc Gene.

Heidfeld ran a total of 83 laps, enabling the team to gather further critical data that will be used in the 2003 car, the C22.

Jacky Eeckelaert commented "We had an extremely good day. This morning the car ran like clockwork and we were able to make the most of an incident-free session to complete our aerodynamic program. In the afternoon we switched our attention to a tyre program with experimental and development tyres on behalf of Bridgestone which proved productive."

Heidfeld is confident of good results in 2003, saying "Having seen all the work going on with the C22 in Hinwil I am feeling very excited about our prospect for the new season."

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Laps
1	K Raikkonen	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/17D	M	1:10.664	114
2	D Coulthard	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/17D	M	1:11.833	65
3	JP Montoya	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:12.139	137
4	M Gene	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:13.510	45
5	N Heidfeld	Sauber	Petronas	C21	B	1:13.725	83
6	V Liuzzi	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:14.026	71
7	J Trulli	Renault	Renault	R202	M	1:14.173	55