Webber leads at Valencia test

There was testing action at three circuits on February 14th with Bahrain's Sakhir track, Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya and Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo all in use. The busiest circuit was Valencia, where the Williams of Mark Webber topped the times with a best of 1:10.691. Team tester Alex Wurz was also on duty and was fifth fastest.

Mark Webber.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Second on the time sheet was Red Bull's Christain Klien, about half a second off Webber, and test driver Robert Doornbos was seventh. Klien ran the revised bodywork package on the RB2 and Doornbos focused on tyres in the older version of the car.

McLaren had two MP4-21 cars on track, both in the new chrome livery, with tester Pedro de la Rosa third and Juan Pablo Montoya fourth. They focused on system checks and long runs ahead of a full programme commencing tomorrow. Montoya didn't start until the afternoon as the team was installing the engine and gearbox.

MF1 was the other team at work at Valencia, with three drivers sharing duties. Tiago Monteiro clocked the sixth best time, while testers Markus Winkelhock and Giorgio Mondini rounded off the times in eighth and ninth respectively.

Monteiro worked on set up, tyres and control system evaluations in the M16, while Winkelhock familiarized himself with the interim EJ15B chassis. Mondini did some limited laps, also in the interim chassis, in preparation for a full programme tomorrow.

BMW Sauber ran solo at Barcelona and Jacques Villeneuve led test driver Robert Kubica with a best time of 1:17.514. Villeneuve ran damper tests and evaluated new components while Kubica, who was less than a tenth behind, focused on set up.

In Bahrain Ferrari tester Luca Badoer led the way with a fastest time of 1:31.230 in the F2004 fitted with the restricted V10 engine. Felipe Massa drove the 248 and was fourth fastest and both drivers worked on tyres. Honda's Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were second and third respectively, working on set up, tyres and aerodynamics.

Toro Rosso's Tonio Liuzzi rounded off the Sakhir times in fifth and experienced a gearbox problem while working on set up. "Nevertheless, it was a reasonable day with signs of performance gain and general progress," said chief engineer Laurent Mekies.