On the second day of the three ...

Published on 02 July 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

On the second day of the three day test session of the Stewart team at the circuit of Silverstone in England Jos has driven for the first time today. Yesterday Jos' car wasn't ready because the team had been very busy with the opening of the new Stewart factory on June 30. Jos was quite satisfied with the way things went at the test session today. Jos as well as Rubens Barrichello had driven. In the end Jos managed a fastest time 1:27.75 and Rubens had a best time of 1:28.91. The difference in times can be partly explained by the fact that Jos had less fuel on board than Rubens.

Jos has driven a total of about 50 laps, mainly spent on working on getting the set-up of the car right for the British Grand Prix on July 12. Some work has still to be done on the understeer problem of which the car is still suffering. Together with his engineer Malcolm Tierny, designer Alan Jenkins and the other engineers the team is working very hard to improve the car. Fortunately Jos is able to pinpoint the problem and the engineers are picking it up very well. Tomorrow will be the third and final day of the test session.

During testing yesterday at Silverstone Mika Hakkinen was fastest with 1:26.12, followed by Coulthard with 1:26.78 and Fisichella with 1:27.36. After 22 laps Barrichello managed a 15th time yesterday with 1:29.18. All teams are testing at Silverstone at the moment.