Busy week for winter testing

There was a slight disagreement about who was fastest at the Valencia test today, both Jaguar and Williams claiming the honours. Jaguar had Mark Webber clocked as the quickest time of the day but on Williams' list of times, Juan Pablo Montoya was in the top slot. While it may seem more likely that Montoya was the quicker, Jaguar's test report of the day stated Webber finished ahead.

Williams had three cars on track, Ralf Schumacher and test driver Marc Gene joining Montoya: "The test team worked really hard today as again we had all three drivers on the track in three cars," said test team manager Tim Newton.

"Juan completed a successful race simulation in addition to some tyre work driving an FW24. Marc was running an FW25 for continued systems and set-up work and Ralf who was also in an FW25 was assisting the team in some practice race situations."

Jaguar simulated a race distance, Webber racking up a huge 114 laps, and the Australian was pleased with the reliability of the car. Third quickest was Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella who was hampered by minor gremlins, including a water leak. The team worked on gathering data on the new EJ13 and the Ford Cosworth engine. The sole BAR of Jenson Button was fourth quickest, followed by Gene and Ralf Schumacher.

Elsewhere, Michael Schumacher promptly broke the Fiorano lap record he set on Tuesday. Working on development of the F2300-GA, the current champion set a time of 56.807 on the short track.

Toyota completed a four-day test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, Oliver Panis, Cristiano da Matta and new test driver Ricardo Zonta all present. Both race drivers used the TF103 chassis, working on endurance tests, while Zonto ran an interim TF102B for data acquisition.

Renault concluded a three-day test yesterday, at Valencia, with Fernando Alonso and tester Allan McNish on duty. Alonso ran tyre tests and engine mapping and set the fastest time on Wednesday. McNish experienced mechanical problems but completed race simulation work in preparation for Melbourne.