Team SAUBER PETRONAS continued its four-day test at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez today. Felipe Massa covered 22 laps in chassis C22-05 to set a best time of 1:26.892. He will continue tomorrow before test driver Neel Jani will complete the test on Thursday.

Jacky Eeckelaert (Chief Race Engineer) commented, “Today we basically experienced the same story as yesterday. In the morning we had light rain which enabled us to run at least 22 laps. We focused on wet set-up for Felipe and optimised his car for his race style under wet weather conditions. But in the afternoon it started to rain even heavier than yesterday. Felipe tried to go out and to do some more laps but there was simply too much water on the straights that he couldn’t accelerate. Under these conditions it was too dangerous to continue and it didn’t make sense considering our original test programme for today which was supposed to concentrate on dry tests. We were forced to postpone it to tomorrow. Therefore the schedule for tomorrow will comprise a comparison of two different damper modifications, the assessment of a new brake material and Bridgestone dry tyre tests.”

Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Tuesday, 9 December 2003
Weather: wet
Temperature: Air 12°, Track 12°
Number of laps: Felipe Massa 22 laps, 97.416 kilometres
Track Length: 4.428 kilometres

These are the laptimes set by all the drivers during the morning session:

1. A. Davidson B.A.R. 1:26.256s 47 laps
2. F. Massa SAUBER PETRONAS 1:26.892s 22 laps
3. R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:27.003s 10 laps
4. T. Sato B.A.R. 1:27.199s 18 laps
5. J. Montoya Williams 1:27.452s 50 laps
6. F. Montagny Renault 1:27.775s 25 laps
7. M. Webber Jaguar 1:27.855s 43 laps
8. P. de la Rosa McLaren 1:28.483s 26 laps
9. M. Gene Williams 1:28.663s 28 laps
10. F. Alonso Renault 1:28.705s 7 laps
11. O. Panis Toyota 1:29.627s 35 laps
12. Ch. Klien Jaguar 1:30.564s 41 laps
13. C. da Matta Toyota 1:31.398s 31 laps
14. A. Wurz McLaren 1:32.365s 9 laps