Jerez 2: JV flies in the rain
Sauber new boy Jacques Villeneuve picked up where his team-mate Felipe Massa left off by setting the pace on the second day of Formula 1 testing at Jerez on Thursday.
For the second day running, intermittent rain played havoc with track conditions and the Canadian called it right by being on track when it was at its driest. Although drivers reported that the circuit was never completely dry all day which once again rendered times useless.
Sauber continued to improve on its databank of knowledge of the tyres from new supplier Michelin, and it's worth bearing in mind that the C23 the team is using is still in the same specification it was in when it left Brazil after the final grand prix of 2004.
Christian Klien, in an interim R5 chassis, was second quickest for the new Red Bull Racing team (old Jaguar Racing) while Nick Heidfeld proved quicker than the man he is trying to beat to the Williams race seat, Antonio Pizzonia (click HERE for separate story). The German went third fastest in an identical interim FW26 chassis to that driven by the Brazilian.
Due to the weather there were several incidents. Enrique Bernoldi endured a massive accident fifteen minutes into the morning session. The Brazilian aquaplaned under-braking for the tight right-hander at the end of the backstraight. Although Bernoldi was unharmed, the BAR 006 chassis (including several expensive measurement devices flown over from Honda's factory in Japan) was completely destroyed.
Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, Luca Badoer and Franck Montagny also all had incidents because of the difficult conditions.
Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber-Petronas), M, 1m22.379s, 68 laps
Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing), M, 1m22m861s, 36 laps
Nick Heidfeld (Williams-BMW), M, 1n23m126s, 91 laps
Antonio Pizzonia (Williams-BMW), M, 1m23m382s, 48 laps
Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda), M, 1m24.115s, 41 laps
Alex Wurz (McLaren-Mercedes), M, 1m24.700s, 48 laps
Vitatantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull Racing), M, 1m25.378s, 64 laps
Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), M, 1m26.300s, 54 laps
Alan van der Merwe (BAR-Honda), M, 1m26.992s, 32 laps
Luca Badoer (Ferrari), B, 1m27.553s, M, 35 laps
Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), M, 1m28.499s, 37 laps
Marc Gene (Ferrari), B, 1m28.929s, 33 laps
Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren-Mercedes), M, 1m29.697s, 23 laps
Franck Montagny (Renault), M, 1m30.819s, 35 laps
Robert Doornbos (Jordan-Cosworth), B, 1m32.211s, 49 laps
James Rossiter (BAR-Honda), M, 1m33.474s, 34 laps
Enrique Bernoldi (BAR-Honda), M, 1m33.493s, 14 laps
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