Testing continues on three tracks

The track action continued at various testing venues on Wednesday and at Silverstone Williams was joined by Jordan 's Tiago Monteiro to make three cars at work. Williams' Mark Webber was the quickest of the quartet, 1:20.121, and his teammate Nico Rosberg was second fastest, a second and a half behind.

Mark Webber.

Photo by xpb.cc.

"On the second day at Silverstone circuit, Mark Webber completed just over one hundred laps while carrying out a range of tyre tests in preparation for the Spanish GP next weekend," said test team manager Tim Newton.

"Meanwhile Nico Rosberg, the team's new second test driver, made a solid debut today, registering nearly 300 kilometers. As he hasn't driven the FW27 before, Nico spent the session acclimatising himself and carrying out systems checks."

Monteiro rounded off the times in third. BAR was on track at Mugello and tester Anthony Davidson was the quickest of the seven drivers present. His best time was 1:20.652 and Takuma Sato was just two thousandths behind in second fastest. They worked on tyres and aerodynamics.

Ferrari continued with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello taking over from the test drivers. Tyres and aerodynamics were also the focus of their day and Barrichello was third on the time sheet, with Schumacher just over a tenth behind.

Minardi was also at Mugello; Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher drove the new PS05 chassis and test driver Chanoch Nissany was behind the wheel of the PS04B -- although not all on track at once in order to comply with the test agreement.

"I would like to make it clear that Minardi is fully respecting the testing arrangement that is in place with other teams, and although we have three chassis present here at Mugello, we have only allowed two cars on track at the same time," said team manager/sporting director Massimo Rivola.

It was a difficult day for Minardi: technical problems meant they had no track time until late in the morning, then once out on the circuit Nissany and Albers crashed in "a misunderstanding about track position". Friesacher did the most laps, 38 and the best time of the trio, 1:25.623.

Sauber carried on with its solo session at Fiorano with Felipe Massa again at work. The Brazilian evaluated traction control and carried out set up work and the team also finished data validation of the new rear of the car and assessed cooling options. Massa's best time was 58.566.