Gene Again on Top at Paul Ricard - Day Two

Spanish test driver Marc Gene topped the timesheets for the second day in a row in today's testing session at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

The Williams tester, again at the wheel of the BMW-powered FW25, was almost two seconds quicker than yesterday around the French circuit, which featured new safety barriers after some drivers complained about it during the previous test at the end of last month.

Gene, who suffered a mechanical problem that forced the session to be stopped in the afternoon, finished ahead of McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz, whose team got back to work today after their disastrous Spanish Grand Prix, where both Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard failed to finish.

The Scot driver was also in action today with the MP4-17D chassis, posting the fourth fastest time behind Toyota driver Cristiano da Matta, who worked for the second day at Paul Ricard alongside Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, slowest today.

The BAR team joined the test with both Briton Jenson Button and test driver Anthony Davidson, who was back behind the wheel of a Formula One car for the first time since January, when he last tested for the Brackley-based outfit.

The BAR duo finished fifth and sixth quickest, with Australian Mark Webber in seventh on the first day of work for the Jaguar team. Italian Jarno Trulli and German Heinz-Harald Frentzen were the only drivers in action for Renault and Sauber respectively, both finishing close to the bottom of the times.

Testing at Paul Ricard continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.919 101 2. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:12.317 106 3. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:12.939 88 4. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:12.997 100 5. Button BAR-Honda (B) 1:13.769 90 6. Davidson BAR-Honda (B) 1:14.041 73 7. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:14.122 111 8. Trulli Renault (M) 1:14.297 114 9. Frentzen Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:14.376 98 10. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:14.767 85 All Timing Unofficial

Visit Atlas F1's Testing Center for further information