Valencia Thursday testing report

Kimi Raikkonen topped the time sheets at Valencia today -- and broke the track record while he was at it, recording a best of 1.12.118 out of 94 laps. No-one could match the pace of the McLaren, the nearest rival being the Jordan of Fisichella over seven tenths of a second behind.

In warm and sunny conditions 12 drivers took part in today's test, with BAR joining for the first time this week.

Despite spinning twice and breaking his front suspension Giancarlo Fisicella was second fastest over all for Jordan, while team mate Takuma Sato was fourth. Both drivers were carrying out tyre testing for Bridgestone and Sato was also evaluating braking systems.

Williams' Ralf Schumacher had minor difficulties throughout the day but managed third fastest, with team mate Juan Pablo Montoya in sixth and test driver Marc Gene in seventh -- the Williams' drivers seperated by Sato and Olivier Panis for BAR in fifth. The other two BAR drivers, Jacques Villeneuve and Anthony Davidson, were eigth and tenth respectively, sandwiching the sole Toyota of Mika Salo.

Once again Minardi rounded up the bottom of the times, this time with former Benetton test driver Mark Webber -- and contender for the vacant Minardi race seat -- finishing two seconds ahead of Dutch DTM driver and last year Minardi tester Christijan Albers.