Frentzen praise for new car

Heinz-Harald Frentzen has hailed the new Sauber as a step forward after testing today at Barcelona.

The German set the fourth fastest time of the day on his first outing in the C22 and was impressed by the Swiss team‘s 2003 challenger.

He said: “I was very excited to get my hands on the C22 for the first time today, after the way (team-mate) Nick Heidfeld spoke about it yesterday.

“I have to say he was right. The car feels more stable than the C21 and easier to drive. It's going to be good.”

Scotsman David Coulthard topped the timesheets with McLaren colleagues Alex Wurz and Kimi Raikkonen in second and third respectively.

Olivier Panis continued testing Toyota‘s new car and set the fifth quickest time.

The Frenchman said: “The car continued to show a very promising level of performance but we encountered various problems which shortened our on-track time.

“We could not complete as many laps as we expected today and, in that respect, I am not so happy.

“I am not worried by these difficulties though, they are typical from the first tests you do with a new car and we are effectively carrying out a sort of large shakedown. Everything should be fine for tomorrow.”

Rookie team-mate Cristiano da Matta continued to acclimatise to Formula One after his switch from Champ Cars and he was pleased with his day‘s work, despite being over a second slower than Panis.

He said: “Overall I am extremely pleased with the work we have done today. I have had a much more productive session, probably one of the most effective I had with the team so far.”