Testing at two circuits

Testing continued on Thursday March 24th with the action split between two circuits: Paul Ricard in France and Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. Paul Ricard was the busier track with eight drivers on duty and Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta set the best time of the day, 1:03.848. Race driver Jarno Trulli was also at work for the team and was eighth.

Ricardo Zonta.

Photo by Toyota Racing.

McLaren finished its two-day test with Pedro de la Rosa second on the time sheet, six tenths down on Zonta, and Alex Wurz a tenth behind his teammate in third. The pair worked on tyre development in changeable weather conditions, and de la Rosa also evaluated new front suspension for the MP4-20.

Franck Montagny and Heikki Kovalainen were on duty again for Renault, the testers being fifth and sixth respectively. They focused on accumulating mileage for reliability work and some set up development. BAR test driver Anthony Davidson, fastest man yesterday, was sixth overall and team race driver Jenson Button was seventh.

At Barcelona it was American Scott Speed who was quickest of the four drivers present, as he tried out for Red Bull Racing. His best time was 1:16.123 and the team also had Neel Jani behind the wheel. The Swiss, who was previously test driver for Sauber, rounded off the times in fourth.

Williams was the other team present. Nick Heidfeld and test driver Antonio Pizzonia were second and third quickest respectively as they prepared for Bahrain. "We're back in Barcelona for just two days this week, testing parts in preparation for next weekend's race in Bahrain," said test team manager Tim Newton.

"With Nick and Antonio on duty for the team, we concentrated on the usual set-up work this morning. While Nick carried out a series of long runs this afternoon, Antonio put the FW27 through its paces practising starts. Both drivers will return to the track tomorrow."