Barcelona, day 4: DC again

Coulthard was a tenth slower than his record breaking pace set earlier in the week, but even so his best lap of 1m15.382s was still substantially quicker than team-mate Raikkonen, who lapped in 1m16.007s.

Like the two McLarens, third quickest man, Juan Pablo Montoya, was also testing tyres, and was a tenth down on the Finn. Next up was the 2003-spec Toyota TF103 of Olivier Panis, who was revelling in the potential of his new mount.

The French veteran was three quarters of a second quicker than Cristiano da Matta in the hybrid TF102B, which incorporates Toyota new, more powerful engine.

Alex Wurz and Marc Gene also tested interim cars for McLaren and Williams, but were only fractionally quicker than Anthony Davidson in the BAR 005, who recorded his fastest ever lap of the Circuit de Catalunya.

The Brit's running was restricted to just 26 laps by a couple of niggling problems - a hydraulic leak in the morning and a water leak in the afternoon - but despite this he was very impressed with the performance of the new car.

"I can feel it is a big jump from last year's car and it is easier to control and definitely better in high speed corners - we're going a lot quicker which is making feel tired," he said. "I've never done a 1m17s before. If we can do that without much set-up work, that's great.

"The engine is very close to how it ended in Suzuka but the difference is that there is no vibration. It will be interesting to hear what Taku [Sato] thinks."

Fernando Alonso caused a bit of confusion by running in a plain white helmet as he tested the HANS device, while Antonio Pizzonia did what he hopes will be his last test in a Jaguar R3B before the team runs its new car next week.

Jarno Trulli was back in action after missing yesterday's test with food poisoning, while Allan McNish did just three laps without recording a representative time.


David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m15.382s 53
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m16.007s 66
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m16.151s 65
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m16.386s 48*
Cristiano da Matta Toyota M 1m17.008s 58
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m17.480s 94
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m17.587s 71
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda B 1m17.628s*
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m17.865s 57
Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar M 1m18.817s 50
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m20.778s 77
Allan McNish Renault M no time

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2003 car