Coulthard Sets Blistering Pace at Valencia - Day Three

Scot David Coulthard set a blistering pace on the third day of testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain, where the McLaren driver continued with the development of his MP4-17 chassis.

Coulthard, who joined the test at the Spanish circuit on Wednesday, was 1.5 seconds quicker than the closest of his rivals after 44 laps. The Scot's 1:10.813 was, however, nearly four tenths of a second slower than the track record at Valencia, set by him earlier this year. Coulthard's teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth quickest.

Juan Pablo Montoya was second quickest in the only Williams present on track today, the Colombian taking over from test driver Antonio Pizzonia in a session that was hit by a heavy rain in the afternoon that hampered the teams' progress.

"The morning session was helpful running several sets of tyres for Michelin," said Tim Newton, Williams test team manager. " However, the afternoon session saw us struggling with very heavy rain and Montoya was only able to complete 8 laps."

Italian Jarno Trulli and Spaniard Fernando Alonso continued working at the wheel of the Michelin-shod Renault R202, the latter finishing in third place while the young test driver was fifth quickest ahead of German Nick Heidfeld.

"It was another productive day for the team," said Renault's technical director Mike Gascoyne. "This morning, the drivers continued their programmes, and Fernando managed to run the new traction control system in the wet during the afternoon.

"Jarno simply completed a shake-down in preparation for tomorrow, when he will test brake developments and conduct general set-up work."

Sauber driver Heidfeld replaced teammate Felipe Massa today, and was the busiest man while the track was dry with 62 laps.

"It took me a while to adapt to Felipe's car this morning and we did a lot of work on set-up," said Heidfeld. "It's disappointing that the rain came this afternoon, because we were not able to improve any times. But overall driving a total of 96 laps all day, makes me think that the car is very reliable and I'm happy with the work that we did."

Jaguar drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Eddie Irvine finished at the bottom of the timesheets with their Cosworth-powered R3s, neither of them running in the afternoon session when the track was wet.

Testing at Valencia concludes on Friday.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:10.813 44 2. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:12.317 59 3. Trulli Renault (M) 1:12.411 43 4. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:12.658 52 5. Alonso Renault (M) 1:12.831 52 6. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:13.140 62 7. De la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:13.225 31 8. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:14.281 42

Today's times in the wet:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:30.195 34 2. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:30.493 9 3. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:31.073 18 4. Alonso Renault (M) 1:34.415 6 5. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:36.385 8 All Timing Unofficial

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