Button Stays on Top at Barcelona - Day One

Briton Jenson Button stayed at the top of the timesheets on the first day of this week's testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Button, on his first day of serious work with the new BAR-Honda 006 unveiled on Sunday, crushed the Spanish track's record with a quickest time of 1:13.867 despite completing only 27 laps during the session.

The BAR driver lowered the circuit's record by over eight tenths and finished almost 1.5 seconds ahead of Spaniard Marc Gene.

The Williams tester, working with the new FW26 car, was the fastest of the two drivers from the Grove-based outfit, outpacing Ralf Schumacher, who was fourth quickest. The German driver returned to work after being sidelined last week due to abdominal pains.

Schumacher finished behind the second BAR-Honda, driven by Takuma Sato. The Japanese driver, however, was at the wheel of the old 005 concept car.

The Ferrari team were in action with test driver Luca Badoer, who set the fifth best time in the F2003-GA, finishing ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in the only Sauber on track. Fisichella was the busiest man today, covering more than a Grand Prix distance.

"Despite of the foggy weather in the morning, which forced us to postpone the start of our test for two hours, we finished our scheduled programme for today," explained Sauber's chief engineer Jacky Eeckelaert.

"In the morning we ran some mechanical set-up tests and assessed different front wings as well as several cooling configurations under high-speed conditions. Later we worked with Bridgestone on rear tyre constructions."

McLaren were also at work in Barcelona with their new MP4-19, but the Woking-based squad had an unimpressive session, with their three drivers finishing at the bottom of the times. Pedro de la Rosa was the quickest of the three, ahead of Alexander Wurz and Briton Darren Turner.

Testing at Barcelona resumes tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:13.867 27 2. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:15.302 59 3. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:15.594 75 4. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.016 64 5. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:16.302 81 6. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:16.584 85 7. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:16.955 59 8. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.069 35 9. Turner McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:19.887 17 All Timing Unofficial

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