Jerez 3: Montagny goes top

The Frenchman, who was working on tyre work for Brazil and traction control evaluation, outpaced Pizzonia by just three-tenths of a second.

Pizzonia was far from unhappy with his week's work though, having set the pace on the first two days of the test. He was encouraged by tyre work and some 2005 aero developments - but even happier that his troubled ankle was no longer causing him problems.

"My ankle is much better now," said Pizzonia, who missed the previous test at Jerez after twisting his ankle in a fall at a hotel in China. "It was such a silly accident, but I am happy that things are now back to normal. I've had a good week."

Ricardo Zonta was third quickest, despite a spectacular engine failure at lunchtime, as he geared up for his home grand prix at Interlagos next weekend. He was optimistic that development work on the car and tyre front would help Toyota finish the season with a decent result.

"It's been a good three days and I think we have found some very good tyres for Brazil," he said. "Although the track's characteristics are different to here, so you cannot really tell, I think we have got some good ones."

The day was pretty much incident free, although Anthony Davidson did have a minor off at the first corner in his BAR and caused light damage to his car after hitting the barriers.

Bjorn Wirdheim also completed Jaguar's final ever Formula 1 test in its current guise, as he worked on the 2005 gearbox and transmission developments. The team is scheduled to test again in November, when teams begin their 2005 preparations, but that will only be if it has been successfully sold by Ford.



Franck Montagny (Renault) 1m16.297s
Antonio Pizzonia (Williams) 1m16.575s
Ricardo Zonta (Toyota) 1m17.030s
Alexander Wurz (McLaren) 1m17.489s
Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1m17.532s
Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren) 1m17.537s
Ryan Briscoe (Toyota) 1m18.051s
Anthony Davidson (BAR) 1m18.835s
Bjorn Wirdheim (Jaguar) 1m19.332s