Button fastest at Jerez testing

Four teams were at work on the second day of testing at Jerez de la Frontera and Jenson Button was the fastest of the eight drivers on track. The Honda man set a best of 1:18.396 and team tester Anthony Davidson was third on the time sheet. Set up and aerodynamic evaluations were the schedule for the pair and Rubens Barrichello is due to join on Thursday.

Jenson Button.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Jarno Trulli's Toyota split the two Hondas in second, a couple of tenths down on Button, and teammate Ralf Schumacher was seventh fastest. Both experienced troubles that lost them time, clutch for Trulli and gearshift for Schumacher, but it was not too bad a day overall.

"The testing day is quite short here anyway because the track takes a while to warm up in the morning, so any lost running time is difficult to make up," said test team manager Gerd Pfeiffer in regard to the drivers' problems. "Still, between them we were able to put in a fair amount of laps and gain more experience of the TF106."

McLaren testers Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett were the only two drivers running restricted V10 engines and were fourth and fifth respectively to conclude the team's two-day test. Tyres were the focus of the work and Paffett had a minor off due to cold conditions early on, but no damage was done.

"Over the past two days in Jerez, we have again completed some positive work with Michelin on tyres, alongside set-up and some weight distribution programmes," said de la Rosa. "There was cold weather both mornings, which delayed the running slightly, but we were still able to complete some good mileage."

Williams test driver Alex Wurz joined the action and was sixth quickest, while teammate Nico Rosberg rounded off the times in eighth. Rosberg was on track yesterday but did not set a time and today Wurz seemingly suffered from an unspecified mechanical or technical problem in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, BMW Sauber continued its solo test at Valencia. Nick Heidfeld was the quicker of the two cars, 1:12.440 in the new F1.06, while teammate Jacques Villeneuve was a second behind in the C24B chassis. Set up work and tyres were the focus of the day and Villeneuve will get his first taste of the F1.06 on Thursday.