Irvine goes quickest in testing

Irvine battled wet conditions to clock the fastest lap

Jaguar's Eddie Irvine finished a rain-hit day of testing with the fastest lap time at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Irvine, who clocked one minute 19.252, was driving a hybrid car which uses the rear end of the new Jaguar R3 on last season's model.

Rain prevented many drivers from venturing out in the morning session but the skies cleared in the afternoon to allow some serious laps.

Irvine, who was cautious about the new R3 at last week's launch, again played down its propects.

"We have come here to test the new R3 in the expectation that we will have warm weather," said Irvine.

"But that is far from the case. We simply haven't been able to generate a picture of where this car stands yet."

Lauda next out

Jaguar technical director Steve Nichols also emphasised that it was too early to judge the new car.

"The weather hasn't been very cooperative," said Nichols.

"Even if you are trying to collect aerodynamic data all the mist and spray and everything makes it difficult.

"We've also had a few little mechanical niggles but these little problems that we are having now are all little problems that you've got to solve eventually. It's still early days.

"It's not been a complete waste of time but we could have done with a bit more dry weather."

Jaguar boss Niki Lauda will be next out for the team, testing last season's R2 car at Valencia on Sunday.

The Austrian former world champion says he wants to get a feel for the car to understand better the feedback from Irvine and Spanish team mate Pedro de la Rosa.