Jerez Day 1 : Frentzen To The Fore.

Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen quickly established himself as the man to beat on the 1st day of testing at Spain's Jerez circuit. The German took his Jordan EJ10 around the 2.751 mile track in a slick 1:23.49, outpacing McLaren's Mika Hakkinen by nearly a second.


Frentzen was on the pace from the start of the session, concentrating on set-up, tyres and practice starts, saying afterwards of his troublefree day, "We made the most of it by completing a good amount of work." Bookmakers currently have odds of 20-1 for Frentzen to win the World Championship this year which seem very generous considering the progress made by the team and driver over the winter.


McLaren had a slightly more stressful day with Mika Hakkinen stopping out on the circuit just before the end of the session. The Finn was the only other driver to break into the 1:24s with a fastest mark of 1:24.40. Test driver Olivier Panis, in one of last year's MP4/14 chassis, posted third quickest despite a spin and a gearbox problem.


Jaguar also impressed with their continuing upsurge in the reliability stakes. Eddie Irvine, focusing more on long distance running, came away with fourth fastest time of the day, which bodes well for overall race pace. Teammate Johnny Herbert was beset by an engine problem and his resulting time of 1:26.51 was only good enough for ninth place.


Fifth fastest was poor reward for Williams' Ralf Schumacher who looked set to go faster still in the afternoon session until an oil leak pushed him to the sidelines. Ralf didn't complete as many laps as both he and the team would have hoped, but still achieved some good set-up results. Jenson Button's replacement Bruno Junqueira takes to the track on Thursday.


B.A.R had a single car for Brazilian Ricardo Zonta who completed 76 laps, taking sixth place in a car which seems to be reliable if not close to the ultimate pace. Zonta's fastest lap was a 1:26.12.


Pedro Diniz had a scary moment when "something happened to the rear wing of my car," sending the Brazilian into a spin. Damage was not major and the team will investigate the cause of the accident before resuming running on Thursday morning. In the 31 laps Diniz completed before his 'off' he was able to set seventh quickest time with a 1:26.14.


Both Benetton B2000's proved problematical as neither Giancarlo Fisichella nor Alex Wurz were able to find any balance in the car. Wurz's running time was reduced further when, after just 13 laps his gearbox broke leaving much of its oil on the track.


TESTING TIMES FOR WEDNESDAY.


1. H-H Frentzen Jordan 1:23.49.

2. Mika Hakkinen McLaren 1:24.40.

3. Olivier Panis McLaren 1:25.02.

4. Eddie Irvine Jaguar 1:25.47.

5. Ralf Schumacher Williams 1:25.85.

6. Ricardo Zonta B.A.R 1:26.12.

7. Pedro Diniz Sauber 1:26.14.

8. Jean Alesi Prost 1:26.18.

9. Johnny Herbert Jaguar 1:26.51.

10.G Fisichella Benetton 1:26.62.

11.Alex Wurz Benetton 1:27.80.