Day 3: Frentzen quickest in Valencia

The French F3000 driver did 25 laps during his F1 debut, although his quickest time was over three seconds down on Frentzen's. However, the object of his test was to get to know the car and unlike Frentzen he wasn't going for a quick time.

Giancarlo Fisichella was just a few tenths slower than the lead Arrows in second, while Fernando Alonso ran a new spec Renault engine to set the third best time. Felipe Massa and Marc Gene both did over 100 laps for Sauber and Williams respectively, as the teams sought to get the most from the final test until September.

"I am happy to have done so much running," said Massa. "It feels as if we have tried every conceivable configuration on the car. Certainly the work we have done at this test has enabled us to improve the car for the French Grand Prix."

Over in Monza Antonio Pizzonia yet again set the pace for Williams. The Brazilian ended the day with over half a second's advantage on Olivier Panis, despite having to be towed back to the pits on three occasions. The first time an electrical fault caused his FW24 to stop; then he spun without damage at Parabolica and finally his car cut out at the end of the pitlane.

Panis had a minor gearbox problem, but other than that was generally very happy with the behaviour of his BAR in low downforce trim. Anthony Davidson tested launch and traction controls in the Honda development 'Athena' BAR and was just over half a second slower than Panis.

Jaguar was reduced to just one car when James Courtney crashed in the morning (see separate story). Pedro de la Rosa ended the session with the third fastest time although his set-up evaluation work was interrupted by an engine blow.

Toyota had Mika Salo and Ryan Briscoe on hand. Salo felt the team did a good job in improving the balance of the car.


Heinz-Harald Frentzen Arrows-Cosworth B1m12.505s 41
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda B 1m12.795s 92
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m13.260s 75
Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas B 1m13.715s 104
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m14.065s 106
Sebastien Bourdais Arrows-Cosworth 1m15.719s 25


Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m24.084s 61
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda B 1m24.665s 54
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m24.783s 55
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda B 1m25.256s 51
Mika Salo Toyota M 1m25.968s 41
Ryan Briscoe Toyota M 1m26.261s 29
James Courtney Jaguar M 1m29.037s 12

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone