De la Rosa Shatters Jerez Record - Day Four

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa shattered the Jerez circuit record as he stayed on top of the times on the fourth day of testing at the Spanish circuit.

De la Rosa, who had topped the timesheets on Wednesday, posted a quickest time of 1:16.210, more than a whole second faster than the previous record, set by Williams driver Ralf Schumacher earlier this month. The Spaniard's car, however, caught fire during the session and stopped on track.

De la Rosa, at the wheel of the new McLaren MP4-19, finished ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso and Williams test driver Marc Gene, who completed a session dominated by Spanish drivers.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was the quickest of the non-Spaniards with the fourth quickest time, with Austrian Alexander Wurz, in the McLaren MP4-17D, fifth fastest after 67 laps.

Frenchman Franck Montagny, like Renault teammate Alonso, had a busy day with the second R23 and recorded the sixth quickest time ahead of Luca Badoer in the first of the Ferraris. The second was driven by Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who finished as eighth fastest.

Japanese driver Takuma Sato returned to work today after being replaced by Swede Bjorn Wirdheim on Wednesday at the wheel of the BAR-Honda. Sato worked with the 2003-spec car, while his teammate Jenson Button continued putting the new concept car through its paces. Sato was ninth quickest while Button finished down in 14th.

Toyota continued working with both their racing drivers Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta, the Brazilian outpacing the Frenchman. Both men were split by Jaguar's Christian Klien and Mark Webber.

Swiss driver Neel Jani took over from Brazilian Felipe Massa at the wheel of the Sauber C22, as the Hinwil-based squad wrapped up a four-day programme at the Spanish circuit. Jani finished near the bottom of the times.

"Today our test driver Neel Jani took over the driving," said Sauber's Jacky Eeckelaert, chief engineer. "So far he has done only a few tests for us and being a very young race driver he naturally had some physical difficulties at his early tests for us. But today I saw Neel being in much better shape. He even ran his fastest lap at the end of the day which proves his very good conditions. He ran a lot of laps and did a professional job. I'm very happy with him.

"Neel confirmed the data which we gathered with Felipe in Jerez and with Giancarlo in Barcelona. This shows that he developed a good feeling for the car. Overall I'm happy with what we've done those days. The car ran well and we were finally able to complete our test programme."

China's Ho-Pin Tung made history today, becoming his country's first Formula One driver as he tested for the Williams team as a reward for winning the Formula BMW Asia championship last season. The 21-year old, winner of 10 of the 14 races of the championship, worked with the FW24 chassis the team used in the 2002 season.

Tung covered a total of 42 laps with a quickest time of 1:22.082 and his day included an incident at the Dry Sack corner, where he was forced to go off the track to avoid hitting the Ferrari of Badoer.

"Ho-Pin assisted with our general test programme today, driving the FW24," explained Williams chief operations engineer Sam Michael. "He worked well with the engineering team and demonstrated a good degree of competence and ability over the course of the day. His lap time was very respectable for someone who hadn't driven anything like a Formula One car before today."

Testing at Jerez concludes tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:16.210 54 2. Alonso Renault (M) 1:16.705 118 3. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.162 88 4. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.339 62 5. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.665 67 6. Montagny Renault (M) 1:17.777 106 7. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:18.335 75 8. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:18.371 52 9. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:18.433 71 10. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:18.584 71 11. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.726 92 12. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.776 66 13. Panis Toyota (M) 1:18.835 69 14. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:19.656 51 15. Jani Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:20.271 94 16. Tung Williams-BMW (M) 1:22.082 42 All Timing Unofficial

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