By Phil Huff
February 18 2003

Sauber Petronas began its final three-day pre-season test at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola yesterday before the cars leave for the Australian GP in Melbourne. Nick Heidfeld in chassis 01 covered 76 laps to set the second fastest time while Heinz-Harald Frentzen in chassis 02 ran 93 laps.

Nick Heidfeld commented "I am pleased with what we did today. In the morning we focused on the aerodynamic set-up and made good progress. The afternoon was dedicated to tyre tests and we could gather good and comprehensive data."

Sauber returnee Heinz-Harald Frentzen said "It was a good test day. We mainly concentrated on the brakes and could gather revealing facts which will be essential for further preparations towards Melbourne. We also worked with Bridgestone to provide the data on which it will base its choice of tyre for Albert Park."

Jacky Eeckelaert (Head of Vehicle Engineering) also said "The weather and track conditions have been good today and we have been able to start our test programme as scheduled. The track layout of Imola is similar to Melbourne. Therefore we could get very close to real race conditions as they will be found at the GP in Albert Park. The track with its chicanes puts a high demand on brakes and therefore we particularly focused today on the brake materials as well as brake cooling. Apart from this the programme today comprised aerodynamic and tyre testing. Overall I am happy with what we could achieve today."