Barcelona day 3: McLaren clean sweep

David Coulthard was the quickest of the three, turning a best lap of 1m15.278s. Test driver Alex Wurz was second, his best lap 0.233s slower than the Scot's. Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top three.

Jenson Button completed 28 laps of running on BAR Honda's new 005 car, although he did suffer a brief mechanical problem in the morning session. He said: "It was very good straight out of the box. We had some little problems but nothing major. I can feel this car is good."

The Briton's BAR was fitted with the new Honda engine, the first time the unit has run on-track. "It seems okay," said Button. "It's a good start."

It was Sauber driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen's turn to get his hands on the 2003 C22 today, after Nick Heidfeld had run the car for the previous two day's of the test. He set the fourth best time, 1.4s off Coulthard. "It's always important to get a good first impression. It's definitely easier to drive. I have a good feeling about it. It's very stable and it immediately felt that the difficult characteristics of the C21 were gone."

With Frentzen in the new car, Heidfeld was forced to revert to the C21 for the day. "The new car is definitely more stable," he said.

Renault was also in action at the circuit, with new test driver Allan McNish having his first run for the team. However, he was the slowest of all the runners present.

David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m15.278s 65
Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m15.511s 65
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m16.158s 37
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Petronas B 1m16.656s 75
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m16.884s 33
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m17.115s 67
Juan-Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1m17.278s 74
Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas 1m17.775s 30
Cristiano da Matta Toyota M 1m18.124s 95
Jenson Button BAR-Honda B 1m18.388s 28
Mark Webber Jaguar M 1m18.732s 73
Olivier Beretta Williams-BMW M 1m19.395s 45
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m20.515s 46
Allan McNish Renault M 1m21.157s 24

Key
B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin