Schumacher

ROME -- Germany's world Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has broken the lap record at Ferrari's Fiorano test circuit for the second time in three days.

He also revealed that he is "99.9 percent" confident that the team's new F2002 car will race in the season opening Australian Grand Prix in March.

At the launch of the car at Maranello last week, the team suggested they would race last year's F2001 in the races at the start of the season.

But after being impressed by the car's reliability in its opening test, Schumacher believes it is less of a concern than had originally been expected.

"It is 99 percent certain that I will race at Melbourne with the F2002," Schumacher said. "In fact, it may be even 99.9 percent.

"At this point everything looks really good and I feel we have things under control. ...There have been no problems up to now and we are confident about the future."

Schumacher, who set a time of 58.378 seconds, said the team would continue testing the car before the Australian race.

"Before going to Australia we will simulate a Grand Prix so that we can be totally sure about the first race," he said.

"We want to drive a lot of kilometres now to detect any weak areas -- and I am sure we will find a few here and there.

"But the new car is great. I felt good about it from the word go. I have to really praise our engineers, mechanics and all the other people in charge.

"They've built such a great fast car, which is dependable from the start on top of everything else."