Mugello 3: Sato quickest
Takuma Sato gave further confirmation of BAR's gathering speed when he set the fastest time on the third day of the Mugello test - almost half a second quicker than Michael Schumacher went the day before
"The car has improved so much," said Sato, "and the engine is so good." The engine he was talking about is a new version of Honda's V10, which he and Jenson Button will use in Barcelona.
Sato had used his Barcelona-spec motor yesterday too. It had completed its scheduled mileage by the middle of today and so was changed for another, further-developed, unit. However soon after the change, the Japanese driver's car ground to a halt with a driveshaft failure.
Button was also on-hand and running a Barcelona-spec engine. He was second fastest, marginally outside Schumacher's Wednesday mark. The Briton had both a new front wing and a new rear wing to try, while Sato only got to use the new front wing.
"We were doing a tyre test and an aero test - a normal session for us," explained Button. "We found some small improvements and tried some new parts for the next grand prix."
Sato's driveshaft failure meant that he couldn't complete his own tyre programme ahead of Barcelona, and so will have to rely on input from Button, who continues testing tomorrow. Sato will hand his car over to Anthony Davidson.
Olivier Panis was third quickest for Toyota. The Frenchman was scheduled to run set-up and tyre programmes, but ran into a chassis problem and could not complete his tyre runs, which were taken on by test driver Ricardo Zonta. The Brazilian eventually ran a monster 130 laps over the course of the day - almost twice as many as anyone else.
Rubens Barrichello was the only Ferrari driver present. He was due to work on set-up and tyres, but ran into chassis problems and only completed 45 laps, with a best time of 1m20.896s.
Finally Minardi joined the party with Gianmaria Bruni who was working on set-up and trying to find some of the speed that the team has found elusive to date. The Italian's best lap was significantly slower than anyone else's.
The test continues tomorrow.
Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M 1m19.150s 67
Jenson Button BAR-Honda M 1m19.601s 62
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m20.107s 54
Ricardo Zonta Toyota M 1m20.123s 130
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m20.896s 45
Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth M 1m23.921s 68
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