Davidson impresses once again

The young Briton has shone every Friday so far this year with team bosses at all ends of the paddock singing his praises. And today's efforts at Magny-Cours were no exception as he set the third quickest time in the second session edging out team-mate Jenson Button.

It is not entirely implausible that Davidson could end up in a race seat this year following Ralf Schumacher's accident in the United States GP nearly two weeks ago. It has been suggested that Williams may buy Jaguar's Mark Webber out of his contract early in order place him in Schumacher's seat, given that the German will be out for at least 12 weeks as he recovers from his two fractured vertebrae.

Davidson would be an obvious choice to fill the vacant Jaguar seat for the rest of the season. For the moment, though, the Briton is just concentrating on his present job with BAR.

"The rain has been a little frustrating today - although it wasn't unexpected," he said. "We didn't get as much running as we had hoped for, but we have done enough to give us some useful information for the dry conditions that are likely to prevail for the rest of the weekend. Either way, the BAR felt good in all conditions."

Despite the limited running, team-mate Button was happy with his car and believes the team can take the fight to Ferrari for the rest of the weekend.

"Luckily we got all three cars out in the dry and we can choose our tyres after tomorrow's free practice," said the Briton. "I think that we have a good tyre, and the car really feels good. We just need to make a few adjustments to the set-up and I think that we will be up there tomorrow pushing hard with Ferrari."

Team-mate Takuma Sato finished a lowly 17th but the Japanese driver remains upbeat following a successful test at Jerez last week.

"We had a productive test at Jerez," he said, "so we are confident for tomorrow and we now have to see what the weather brings in order to make our tyre choice somewhat later than usual after free practice tomorrow. I am really looking forward to another strong weekend like we had at Indianapolis."