Button on Top at Valencia - Day Three

Briton Jenson Button finished on top of the timesheets on the third day of testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, where the BAR and Sauber teams are carrying out their preparations for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Button, who joined the test yesterday, finished less than a tenth of a second ahead of German Nick Heidfeld, who continued working on aerodynamics testing for the Sauber team. The German was the busiest man today, completing 99 laps with the Petronas-powered C22.

"Today we have done tyre work and downforce configuration for Monaco as well as for Montreal," said Remi Decorzent, Sauber's race engineer. "We have learnt quite some things from our work today and tested new parts which will be on the race cars for the forthcoming events.

"Furthermore we validated a new start system today which will be applied at the next race. But only at the races we will see how things will work for us."

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was slowest with the second BAR after 82 laps. The session was mostly trouble-free but for a red flag caused by Button, who suffered a mechanical problem in his car, which stopped on track and forced the session to be stopped.

Both BAR drivers will continue testing tomorrow at Valencia, while German Heinz-Harald Frentzen will replace Heidfeld at Sauber. The three drivers will test behind closed doors, working on wet-weather tyre testing on an artificially watered circuit.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Button BAR-Honda (B) 1:11.719 84 2. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:11.804 99 3. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:12.422 82 All Timing Unofficial

Visit Atlas F1's Testing Center for further information