From half past one this afternoon until ...

Published on 12 May 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

From half past one this afternoon until half past five tonight Jos Verstappen as well as Giancarlo Fisichella have been able to test for Benetton Playlife on the circuit of Jerez in Southern Spain. The whole morning the team could not test due to rainfall. The goal of today's test was to improve the set up of the car.

The test session this afternoon went extremely well. At the end of the session Jos had set a best time of 1:24.4. In the end Jos was 3/100 of a second faster than regular driver Giancarlo Fisichella. In an ultimate attempt of Giancarlo to improve on Jos' time in his last run the Italian spun off the track.

Jos let us know that he had a very good time this afternoon: "This is really the moment to go for it and to pick up some new experience". The tests of this afternoon were focused on improving the set up of the car. Giancarlo has tried a new rear suspension on the car, the same one that Jos had tried yesterday. Both drivers liked the new rear suspension better than the previous one. Unfortunately only one of the test cars is equipped with the new system.

Jos has been able to drive some 48 laps and Giancarlo some 35 laps. The weather isn't cooperating that much in Spain at the moment. While Northern Europe is suffering from a heatwave Southern Spain is cool, cloudy and rainy at the moment. On Wednesday the track isn't available to the Benetton team but the session will continue on Thursday and Friday. Jos as well as Giancarlo will drive on both days.