Wurz Happy with Day's Work

"I am happy that it all worked out," said Wurz, who posted the quickest time of the day with his McLaren. "I am very happy that I have done the job that was asked of me, did all I had to do and delivered the fastest lap today, so that is very satisfying.

"Of course, I would like to race but you have to see again the situation the team has been in in the last three days and considering that this is fine."

Austrian Wurz, the official reserve driver who was passed over for the race because he has been too tall to fit into the 2005-specification McLaren, had his first taste of the new car.

The Austrian made an inauspicious start in first practice, pulling over 10 minutes into the session without having completed a timed lap. Things improved in the afternoon, however, and Wurz was over a second quicker than Renault's Fernando Alonso.

McLaren have made hurried modifications to enable him to fit into the cockpit and take over Pedro de la Rosa's job in the third car in Friday practice. The Spaniard is replacing the injured Juan Pablo Montoya.

"The seating position is a bit different, so the vision I have is slightly different, the car behaves differently from high to low speed corners than the 19, but that is normal for a different car," said Wurz.

"It feels good. In the high speed corners I am smiling because there is a lot of rear grip there and I know what we get in the future will really improve the car on the weak points so I am very positive."