Testing concludes at Paul Ricard

The week's testing came to a close at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France on Friday with BAR's Jenson Button once again topping the time sheets. Button set a best of 1:10.846 out of 80 laps and team tester Anthony Davidson was also on track. He drove the 04 concept car and was third on the time sheet.

Jenson Button.

Photo by LAT Photographic.

"We have had an excellent test with the brand new B*A*R Honda 006 chassis testing and our '04 concept car, completing almost 2500kms in three days," said chief test engineer Mark Ellis. "We have successfully tested new aero and suspension parts, and have further engine developments for Bahrain."

Williams' Ralf Schumacher was second fastest and the team gave current IRL champion Scott Dixon his first taste of an F1 car. The New Zealander was fourth quickest of the eight drivers on track. Ralf did distance runs in preparation for the San Marino Grand Prix, as well as set up and simulated starts.

Dixon acclimatized to the FW26 and worked on set up, although a gearbox problem in the morning curtailed his running. He will be back testing for the team at Barcelona early in April. "Although it's a steep learning curve, I've had a really enjoyable day and, in general, I'm please with how it went," he said. "I would have liked to have had a few more runs in the car as I think I could have gone quicker but I'm now looking forward to the next test in Barcelona."

McLaren's pair of test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz were fifth and sixth respectively and the sole Toyota of Ricardo Zonta was seventh. "I think it has been a good test this week," said Zonta of the team's four-day test.

"We have again managed to get a lot of laps under our belt and completed over 1500 kilometres in just four days. We have worked intensively on testing Michelin tyre casings and compounds in preparation for Imola, and today we focussed on various set-ups, playing with the suspension."

Renault test driver Franck Montagny was the last on the time sheet, after focusing on tyres for the team's three days in France. At Fiorano, Michael Schumacher concluded Ferrari's testing week with 106 laps and a best time of 59.425. The German worked on tyres in the F2004.