Silverstone test - day three: 20 July.

The pre-Hockenheim test concluded at Silverstone this morning, with Giancarlo Fisichella recording fastest time ahead of both McLarens.

With the Northampton circuit needing time to prepare for this weekend's historic festival the Formula One boys had just the equivalent of a half-session to complete their German GP preparations, although more good weather enabled great progress to be made all round.

Fisichella topped the times for the second morning running, but could not beat Olivier Panis' best time of the test, as he recorded a 1min 24.93secs benchmark. The Italian was hampered by minor problems on his B200, as well as the persistent red flags that blighted the session as he attempted to put more mileage on his Playlife engine.

Fisichella was closely followed by Williams driver Jenson Button who, for the first time, lifted the Grove team off the bottom of the timesheet. While the other teams persisted with low-downforce settings more akin to those they will use next weekend, Button bolted on extra elements and went for a time, eventually leaving him 5/100ths shy of the Benetton.

Two-day pace-setter Panis was next up, over half a second adrift of Button as he concentrated on helping McLaren tie down the final loose ends in its preparation for Germany. Likewise, David Coulthard was a lowly sixth fastest, two full seconds slower than Fisichella, but both drivers left the circuit confident that the cars would be on the pace at Hockenheim.

Between the two silver-clad drivers came regular test pilots Enrique Bernoldi, taking over from Mika Salo at Sauber, and Luciano Burti, completing his third day behind the wheel of the Jaguar in case he is required to race in Germany. The two Brazilians were separated by half a second, with Bernoldi happy to have played a constructive role for his Swiss employers.

''I now have enough miles behind the wheel of the Sauber to help the team a lot,'' he explained, ''I see that I am getting more confident and can start working with the team right away in a session. I am very pleased to be fourth today, and am looking forward to another session in August at either Valencia or Mugello.''

''Enrique completed 46 laps this morning,'' confirmed test team boss Jacky Eckerlaert, ''We would have liked to have continued our aerodynamic work today, as we did a lot of useful work in that area and with the engine mapping to improve the grip of the car out of slow corners, but we could not as Silverstone is getting ready to celebrate a prestigious three day event of historic racing.''

Behind Coulthard, two more test drivers outpaced two regular racers, with Antonio Pizzonia and Patrick Lemarie producing the goods for Benetton and BAR respectively. The Brazilian completed basic set-up work on behalf of the Enstone outfit, while his French counterpart again ran in the Honda-developed Athena 200 development car.

Both Lemarie and team-mate Ricardo Zonta suffered offs, without damaging their cars, but the Brazilian was forced to bring up the rear behind Jordan's Jarno Trulli as a result. Trulli was running the new EJ10B on behalf of the Silverstone team.

Leading performances (20 July):

Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1min 24.93secs 28 laps
Jenson Button Williams-BMW 1min 24.98secs 18 laps
Olivier Panis McLaren-Mercedes 1min 25.66secs 31 laps
Enrique Bernoldi Sauber-Petronas 1min 26.42secs 35 laps
Luciano Burti Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 26.93secs 26 laps
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1min 26.95secs 29 laps
Antonio Pizzonia Benetton-Playlife 1min 27.07secs 15 laps
Patrick Lemarie BAR-Honda 1min 27.69secs 21 laps
Jarno Trulli Jordan-Mugen 1min 28.15secs 25 laps
Ricardo Zonta BAR-Honda 1min 28.45secs 19 laps

[Times courtesy Mild Seven Benetton Playlife]