Silverstone, day 3: Ralf quickest

The Renault team used up one of its 10 precious non GP weekend testing days, and luckily picked the right one to do it. Jarno Trulli saw off his team-mate Fernando Alonso by over half a second, but Alonso suffered a mechanical breakdown during the morning session and an off-track excursion in the afternoon.

"Both drivers had a very busy test programme today, which concentrated mainly on tyre development work with Michelin," said technical director Mike Gascoyne. "Fernando evaluated the tyres for the French and British Grand prix, then focused on the chassis set-up of the R23 in the afternoon. Jarno worked on aerodynamics and general car set-up, together with a tyre test in preparation for the forthcoming race in Canada."

The Jordan team made the long trek, from its base across the road, to post the fourth and fifth quickest times of the day Giancarlo Fisichella was a mere 0.3s off Alonso after 78 laps, while Ralf Firman was just 0.06s off his team-mate. Although their running was hampered though by a number of technical problems.

Ricardo Zonta was sixth and last for Toyota.

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m19.790s 123
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m20.633s 91
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m21.355s 80
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Ford B 1m21.644s 78
Ralf Firman Jordan-Ford B 1m21.699s 69
Ricardo Zonta Toyota M 1m22.594s 51

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin