Barcelona, day 2: Williams on top
Williams' golden boy Ralf Schumacher was at the wheel of the FW25 today (Wednesday) and went quickest around the Circuit de Catalunya, the only man to break into the 1m17s bracket. Team-mate Marc Gene was second quickest and Kimi Raikkonen third, in a McLaren MP4-17D
In contrast with yesterday, the hills above Barcelona were not very sunny but the humidity stayed up. Temperatures were in the low 20s (degrees Celsius) and there was sporadic rain throughout the afternoon, which played havoc with many of the teams' testing programmes.
There were five drivers in the 1m18s. Rubens Barrichello posted a 1m18.838s lap, which was a mere 0.002s off Raikkonen's best but almost 1.0s off Schumacher's Williams.
Sauber's Nick Heidfeld tested a new 'C spec' Petronas engine and finished the day 0.02s behind Barrichello, in fifth, after only 26 laps. Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished third quickest yesterday, an encouraging performance from the Swiss team so far.
The BAR team had the benefit of Jenson Button, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson's input, with Honda fielding more and more bespoke parts. Button ran some body mods, while Takuma Sato tested a new Honda-built gearbox. Davidson has a lighter Honda radiator and brakes for his 115-lap programme. He looked quite exhausted by the end of the day.
It was Alan McNish who really earned his corn, however. The Scot completed a mammoth 146-lap tyre test in the Renault and finished ninth behind the Toyota of Cristiano da Matta.
Jaguar and Jordan joined the fray, with Mark Webber and Ralf Firman in the hot seats. The pair kept ahead of the two new McLaren's of Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz, with Pedro experiencing brake problems in the morning and a small fire in the afternoon.
R Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m17.908s 98
M Gene Williams-BMW M 1m18.383s 92
K Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes 1m18.836s 83
R Barrichello Ferrari B 1m118.838s 81 79
N Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m18.861s 26
J Button BAR-Honda B 1m18.993s 91
T Sato BAR-Honda B 1m19.201s 75
C da Matta Toyota B 1m19.476s 80
A McNish Renault M 1m19.546s 146
M Webber Jaguar-Cosworth M 1m19.736s 86
R Firman Jordan-Ford B 1m1m19.740s 63
P de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1m19.954s 38*
A Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1m20.217s 32*
A Davidson BAR-Honda 1n20.568s 115
* MP4-18A
B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin
Felipe Massa continued working at the Mugello circuit for Ferrari today. He carried out a race simulation covering 81 laps and posted a fastest time of 1m21.967s. Michael Schumacher is due to take over from him tomorrow.
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