Button Sets New Record at Paul Ricard - Day Three

BAR's Jenson Button set a new unofficial lap record at Paul Ricard today, improving the previous record by over one tenth of a second.

Button, who was also fastest yesterday when all six Michelin team began testing at the French track ahead of the San Marino Grand Prix, set a fastest time of 1:06.301 - improving McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen unofficial record from last year of 1:06.425. Today Raikkonen was second quickest, but his fastest laptime was over a second slower than Button's.

Williams test driver Antonio Pizzonia was third fastest, the Brazilian evaluating Michelin tyre compounds for the team. "Today Antonio took over testing duties from Marc Gene and continued the set-up work that we are investigating," said Williams's Chief Operations Engineer, Sam Michael. "He also did long runs on the most interesting tyre compounds and constructions in preparation for the forthcoming San Marino Grand Prix."

Behind Pizzonia were the Renault pair of Fernando Alonso and Franck Montagny. "Once again, it was a positive day for the team," commented Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer for Renault. "We were pleased to comfortably exceed a weekend mileage with Fernando's engine, and made good headway with the tyre testing for the next races. The set-up programmes we ran today also proved instructive, and both drivers reported themselves pleased with the results."

Toyota's Olivier Panis and Ryan Briscoe were next on the timesheets, ahead of Jaguar's Christian Klien who managed to run only 25 laps today.

Testing at Paul Ricard continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Time Laps 1. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:06.301 150 2. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:07.375 99 3. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:07.706 110 4. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:07.786 98 5. Alonso Renault (M) 1:08.077 98 6. Montagny Renault (M) 1:08.227 66 7. Panis Toyota (M) 1:08.418 97 8. Briscoe Toyota (M) 1:08.657 128 9. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:09.567 25