Jaguar Valencia Wednesday testing notes

McLaren took the timesheet honours in Valencia, as Jaguar Racing prepared to pack away its equipment and head back up the coast to Barcelona. David Coulthard kept ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, for the third day in a row, while the Finn put in a mammoth 107 lap total. Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella came in third.

The fine weather was tempered by an evil breeze which made it a stop/start day of testing, with the irregular yet persistent appearance of red flags. First to spin off was Marc Gene, the Catalan failing to set a time for the day. Jarno Trulli continued to familiarise himself with the circuit's run off areas, being next off in the nervous looking Renault.

Eddie Irvine broke a driveshaft early on, curtailing his morning run, while team-mate Pedro de la Rosa suffered brake problems in his R2C. Both drivers overcame their respective difficulties and put in some valuable running in the afternoon, with Irvine concentrating on component reliability testing in the R3.

There were a number of red flags after lunch. Jenson Button's engine let go on the start/finish straight, compounding the fledgling Renault team's problems. While the second new face of the week, Antonio Garcia, jumped in his Minardi 'car-share' only to go out and swap ends near the close of play. Even so, the Spanish youngster set an impressive time only 0.4s off that of Alex Yoong, who was another of the afternoon's gravel collectors.

Antonio Pizzonia continued to impress, in fourth place, as the quickest Williams driver. Team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya failed to shine, ending the day in seventh, 0.2s slower than Jaguar Racing's Pedro de la Rosa.

Jaguar Racing will be back on the 'loud pedal' in Barcelona, for four days from Monday January 21 and Jaguar-racing.com will be there.

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