Heinz Means Business

Heinz-Harald Frentzen emerged from the latest Jerez test with fastest time, beating the McLarens of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen into second and third places.


Frentzen amazed onlookers by setting his best time in the heat of the afternoon - a time not usually acknowledged to get the best out of tyres. The German, who has looked out of sorts at Williams this season, apparently asked for leeway in finding a good set-up at the test, and rewarded his engineers with a lap almost three-quarters of a second ahead of Coulthard.


(I tried something new in the set-up,) said Frentzen, (I asked the team to let me play around for three days with the set-up, and I did.) A spokeswoman for the team said: (Heinz-Harald had two very good days. He did a lot of work and sorted out a lot on the car.)


Coulthard and Hakkinen concentrated on testing the latest Bridgestone rubber, and edged Williams test driver Juan Pablo Montoya into fourth spot. The Colombian, in turn, was faster than team regular Jacques Villeneuve, who worked to find the right high-downforce set-up for this weekend's Hungarian GP.


Further back, Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert recorded sixth and eighth best times, separated by Ricardo Zonta in a rare outing with McLaren. Herbert's Sauber rival Jorg Muller worked down to a representative lap by the end of the three days, as Japanese hotshoe Juichi Wakisaka brought up the rear in the second Jordan.


Leading performances:


Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1min 23.39secs

David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1min 24.02secs

Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 24.09secs

Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-Mecachrome 1min 24.27secs

Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1min 25.14secs

Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen 1min 25.27secs

Ricardo Zonta McLaren-Mercedes 1min 25.35secs

Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1min 25.62secs

Jorg Muller Sauber-Petronas 1min 26.75secs

Juichi Wakisaka Jordan-Mugen 1min 27.74secs