Barcelona day 3: Ferrari dominates again

The scarlet machines concentrated on a Bridgestone tyre development programme, and completed several qualifying-style runs. Turning the tables from yesterday, Michael Schumacher went fastest ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello. They finished the day almost 2s quicker than the third fastest driver, Toyota's Olivier Panis.

Panis was enthisiastic about the Japanese manufacturer's car, which has been consistently near the top of the timesheets. "It was quite a good test, and we've found a good base line," he said. "I think this is a good base line generally, and will work everywhere we go. The car has made such a big jump from last year's it's in a different league. Some teams are playing with fuel loads, but I haven't seen the need."

It was a different story for Juan Pablo Montoya, who languished near the bottom of the timesheets for Williams. However, the Colombian was still upbeat about the potential of the car, which was still running with its 2002 aerodynamic package.

"Just trust me, you won't be seeing exactly the same car in Melbourne," said Montoya. "We have lots of work to do and loads of things to come. In Valencia next week, we'll see more of it. If we have the same problem in Valencia next week then we'll be scratching out heads."

BAR had a frustrating day, with both Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve suffering from poor reliability. Button said: "The first two days were very good and the car was reliable. Today we had a reliability problem but we have found a good base and the car is good. The times don't show it, but we're comfortable."

Villeneuve added: "We didn't do as much as we wanted. We had planned to do long runs, but the tyre test that we did was quite good. I'm not worried about the engine as it is not the engine that we'll be using in Melbourne. The car is very good, but it's just so fragile at the moment. Let's see how we get on at the next test."

Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 1m15.465s 85
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m15.762s 65
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m17.390s 54*
Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m17.480s 96*
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m17.560s 53*
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m17.678s 86*
Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar M 1m18.063s 40*
Allan McNish Renault M 1m18.445s 50*
Jenson Button BAR-Honda B 1m18.506s 42*
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m18.903s*
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m19.001s 38*

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin

* denotes 2003 car