Jerez 3: Montagny shines

BAR was still right up there, with Takuma Sato in second after running 105 laps today. But the Japanese had a Renault both in front of and behind him. Montagny completed 90 laps, whilst third-placed Jarno Trulli did 91.

Trulli was beaming after a highly satisfactory day's work: "We could be dark horses for this season. Don't discount us...I am extremely confident.

"This car was quick out of the box, although I wasn't entirely happy in it. But we've made extremely good progress this week. We've done a lot of mileage and worked on several things. There has been a huge step on both engine and chassis, and I might say that we are very safe on the tyre front as well!

"We're very strong in the long runs, but there is still some fine-tuning to be done for single-lap runs. Williams seems to be very good on low fuel, so we still have some work to get to 100 percent on the qualifying laps."

Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were indeed to be found down in seventh and tenth respectively, no nearer to the pace than half a second. At McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen was mildly encouraged to find himself sixth today after a reliable 109 laps.

"It's been our best day of testing this year," said Raikkonen, alluding to the dreadful troubles the team has had in recent running. But Alex Wurz, in the second McLaren, had his share of gearbox problems today. He only managed to pip the Jordan of Nick Heidfeld on the timesheets.



Anthony Davidson's running for BAR was cut short by an ill-fitting seat, but the Jaguar crew of Mark Webber and Christian Klien were pleased with today's good mileage. Webber says the car has improved and is better than last year's model.

"The stability on corner entry is better, and the braking is looking good," said Webber. "We're chipping away and slowly but surely improving. But I think I would like another three weeks of testing to be prepared for Melbourne."



Franck Montagny (Renault) 1m17.051s 90
Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda) 1m17.175s 105
Jarno Trulli (Renault) 1m17.252s 91
Felipe Massa (Sauber-Petronas) 1m17.388s 90
Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber-Petronas) 1m17.391s 84
Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren-Mercedes) 1m17.529s 109
Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW) 1m17.554s 60
Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari)* 1m17.667s 99
Mark Webber (Jaguar) 1m17.717s 116
Ralf Schumacher (Williams-BMW) 1m17.785s 73
Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda) 1m18.179s 37
Christian Klien (Jaguar) 1m18.250s 92
Alex Wurz (McLaren) 1m18.609s 39
Nick Heidfeld (Jordan-Ford) 1m19.449s 93
*Denotes 2003 car