Formula 1

Ralf fastest Paul Ricard 2003-05-08

Williams once again topped the time sheets at the Paul Ricard test session today, this time Ralf Schumacher taking over from Marc GenÃ©. Schumacher set a best of 1:11.221 over 97 laps, quickest of the field of eleven. "Ralf assumed testing duties ...

Published: May 10, 2003, 1:11 PM

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Williams once again topped the time sheets at the Paul Ricard test session today, this time Ralf Schumacher taking over from Marc Gené. Schumacher set a best of 1:11.221 over 97 laps, quickest of the field of eleven.

"Ralf assumed testing duties today and continued with the intensive tyre testing programme we are concentrating on in time for Austria," said test team manager Tim Newton.

"Under clear skies, Ralf completed 98 laps and recorded the fastest time of the day with a lap time of 1:11.221. Tomorrow will be the last day of the test during which we will recommence tyre evaluation."

The McLaren duo of Alex Wurz and David Coulthard were second and third fastest respectively, Coulthard racking up a massive 155 laps. They were followed by Renault's Jarno Trulli and the team also had tester Allan McNish on duty, who rounded off the times.

Trulli continued to run in the new Renault engine and did some Michelin tyre tests while McNish concentrated on suspension in the R202 chassis. Toyota also had two cars on track, test driver Ricardo Zonta fifth quickest and Olivier Panis eighth.

Tester Takuma Sato and Jenson Button were on duty for BAR, sixth and ninth, while Mark Webber was the sole Jaguar on track, completing his two-day session of testing. The team worked on fixing the launch control problem that has plagued it the last two races as well as aerodynamics, fuel consumption and set up. Antonio Pizzonia takes over tomorrow.

Nick Heidfeld was ninth quickest for Sauber and completed the team's three-day test. The German confirmed the set-up data gathered over the last two days for Monaco and also worked on aerodynamics until a drive-shaft failure ended the day.

Ferrari continued in Italy; Felipe Massa working on a Bridgestone tyre programme at Monza while Michael Schumacher took the wheel of the F2003-GA at Fiorano for development work.

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