Final week of winter testing under way

For the final week of testing before the start of the 2005 season, Valencia in Spain was the place to be. The five drivers from three teams on duty at the Ricardo Tormo circuit managed some decent running but teams at work in the UK suffered in the wintry conditions at Silverstone. Sauber was forced to call off the final day of its last pre-season test at Imola due to snow.

Pedro de la Rosa.

Photo by Dave Dyer.

McLaren led the way at Valencia with testers Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz taking the top two spots. De la Rosa's best of the day was 1:09.020, with Wurz just couple of hundredths behind, and the pair racked up over 230 laps between them. Both drove an MP4-19B chassis, as the MP4-20s are being prepared for Melbourne, and simulated Friday practice sessions of race weekends.

"We completed another constructive session today in Valencia in the interim cars," said de la Rosa. "This test is of course the final session before we race for the first time in Australia in 12 days time, and we spent the day simulating all the running that will take place on the Friday of a Grand Prix, obtaining some useful results."

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was third on the time sheet and teammate Rubens Barrichello rounded off the list in fifth. Working in the interim F2004M chassis, Barrichello focused on tyres, while the reigning champion carried out endurance runs. Both will be on track again tomorrow.

Mark Webber was the sole Williams at work and was fourth fastest. "Mark was on duty for the team today in Valencia and spent the morning concentrating on set-up work while in the afternoon he carried out some tyre testing for Michelin," said test team manager Tim Newton. "Despite strong winds, Mark managed to complete 81 laps. He will be joined by Nick Heidfeld tomorrow. "

At Silverstone, Renault and Red Bull had virtually no running due to poor track conditions and snow storms. Despite the efforts of the marshals to clear standing water on the track, Renault tester Franck Montagny managed just three laps and Red Bull's David Coulthard put in two. Jordan was present but did not run at all.