Gene Goes Fastest at Valencia - Day One

Williams' test driver Marc Gene finished on top of the timesheets on the first day of this week's testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

Spaniard Gene, driving the new FW26 car, posted a best lap of 1:10.198 in the fastest of the two Williams on track, the second driven by Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who finished as third fastest as the Grove-based squad concentrated on tyre testing and gearbox work.

The two Williams drivers were split by World Champion Michael Schumacher in the only Ferrari on track today. The German driver worked at the wheel of the old F2003-GA, which incorporated some components of the new F2004 unveiled on Monday by the Italian squad.

Felipe Massa was fourth quickest in the Sauber C23, the Brazilian being involved in one of the few incidents seen today at Valencia. Massa went off the track in the morning session, forcing the track to be closed as his car was extracted from the gravel.

"Today we have done the roll-out of the second chassis C23-02, which basically means that we are testing with a new car this week," explained Sauber's chief engineer Jacky Eeckelaert. "Although it's been quite windy today which made it sometimes difficult to drive we completed our scheduled programme without any technical problems and the new chassis proved to be reliable.

"In the morning we focused on set-up work and continued with Bridgestone tyre construction tests in the afternoon. We also undertook some cooling checks concerning hot weather races."

The Renault team continued with the development of the new R24 chassis which was unveiled at the Barcelona circuit last week. Italian Jarno Trulli was the man in charge of testing duties with the new car, with which he set the fifth fastest time despite suffering a mechanical failure which saw the Italian stopping on the track in the afternoon.

Toyota began a three-day test with Olivier Panis driving the new TF104 and test driver Ricardo Zonta working with the old TF103. Panis wound up sixth quickest while Zonta finished in 11th.

Briton Anthony Davidson and Japanese Takuma Sato were in action for the BAR team, who were again working with an hybrid 005 chassis before the launch of the new 006 next Sunday. Davidson was the fastest of the BAR duo, outpacing Sato by almost two tenths of a second.

Jaguar's Mark Webber returned to work to put more miles on the new R5 car, which was again unimpressive, finishing more than two seconds off the pace after 52 laps.

The Minardi team kicked off their first test of 2004 with Italian Gianmaria Bruni doing the driving at the wheel of the only Cosworth-powered PS04-b car in action at Valencia today. Bruni, who will race for Minardi alongside Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner this year, was slowest almost three seconds off the pace after 75 laps.

Testing continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.198 74 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:10.408 111 3. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.466 82 4. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:11.203 95 5. Trulli Renault (M) 1:11.375 59 6. Panis Toyota (M) 1:11.770 85 7. Montagny Renault (M) 1:11.778 111 8. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:12.094 67 9. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:12.193 64 10. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:12.322 52 11. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:12.762 97 12. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:12.925 75 All Timing Unofficial

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