Button raises the bar at Barcelona

Button completed a flying lap late in the session to finish with a best time of 1:13.935, just edging the Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso.

Button's time was nearly a whole second quicker than last year's pole position time at the Spanish Grand Prix, set by Toyota driver Jarno Trulli (1:14.795).

Button's lap was also the fastest of the year at the Spanish track, beating Kimi Raikkonen's time from yesterday by over a second.

However, rivals were left wondering what the McLaren driver could have achieved today after he was set to complete a qualifying run in the final minutes of the session.

The Finn, however, was unable to cover the lap when Ralf Schumacher's engine blew up on the main straight right at the end of the day, bringing the session to a close.

In the end it was Button on top with his Honda, followed by Fisichella, Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello, all four of them setting their times on short, qualifying runs. Juan Pablo Montoya was fifth quickest in the second McLaren and also the busiest man on track with a massive 131 laps.

The top five drivers today completed over 600 laps between them. The Spanish Grand Prix is 66 laps long.

The day was dominated once again by the Michelin-shod cars, with Williams driver Nico Rosberg finishing as the quickest of the Bridgestone runners in sixth. The German was over 1.5 seconds off Button's pace in his Cosworth-powered FW28.

The Toyota team continued testing with their revised aero package, with both Schumacher and teammate Jarno Trulli in action. The German's day, however, was troubled as he caused three red flags, twice for spinning and the final one when his engine let to.

David Coulthard in the Red Bull RB2 was ninth fastest as the team again completed a lot less mileage than their rivals, despite being scheduled to carry out a race simulation. 

Coulthard covered just 54 laps while teammate Christian Klien, hit by clutch problems, finished in 12th with one more lap done.

Dutchman Christijan Albers was the only Midland driver on track today after teammate Tiago Monteiro completed his work on Wednesday. Albers had a productive day and covered more than a Grand Prix distance to finish only ahead of the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato.

The new Formula One team made progress today and managed to cover 58 laps as they completed their programme of system checks. Sato finished less than six seconds off the pace, although the SA05 car is not fitted with the definite aero package to be used in 2006.

The team will test the revised bodywork at Silverstone next week.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:13.935  116
 2.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:13.971  125
 3.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  1:13.977  113
 4.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  1:14.266  119
 5.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:14.588  131
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:15.475   80
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:15.774   83
 8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:15.973   97
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:16.034   54
10.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:16.057  103
11.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:16.128   97
12.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:16.923   55
13.  Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:17.142   79
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:19.787   58

All Timing Unofficial