Jerez 3: Pizzonia fastest
Williams test driver Antonio Pizzonia topped the times as seven teams ran at a sunny Jerez in southern Spain. Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher completed the top three, though both had their problems over the day
Pizzonia was in confident mood and told Autosport.com that it will be either him, or Marc Gene, who will drive alongside Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams race team at Hockenheim next weekend.
The Brazilian was happy with his tyre test programme, set a quick lap in the morning and is gearing up to do race simulations, including pit-stops, tomorrow.
Button's day didn't go nearly as well, the Englishman only really managing to get going in the final hour. A throttle problem, and then some gearbox troubles, that came to light after an engine change, kept his BAR-Honda in the garage for most of the day.
It wasn't a good day for the BAR team as Takuma Sato also hit troubles (exhaust and gearbox) and didn't complete his programme. The Japanese driver was particularly upset at missing the chance to get back on top of the car's set-up after recent disappointing showings and with the summer test ban looming. A lot rides on tomorrow's (Friday's) progress.
Anthony Davidson was shaking down a new chassis, but gearbox trouble restricted him to three installation laps.
Schumacher's day mostly went well, but he went off the circuit late in the day after a front tyre deflation. The German was, however, reported to be in an extremely relaxed and happy mood...
Ricardo Zonta was the best of the rest for Toyota as he completed set-up, tyre and software work in the 'old' TF104. Olivier Panis took over the new, lighter TF104B from Cristiano da Matta, but had an unhappy and inconclusive day with a number of electrical and gearbox problems.
Fernando Alonso and Franck Montagny ground out over 100 laps each for Renault, assessing tyres and trying engine developments - Alonso short-term and Montagny long-term.
McLaren testers Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz also ran plenty of laps - testing tyres for Germany and Hungary in the MP4-19s.
Mark Webber had a few minor engine tweaks to try in the Jaguar while his young Austrian team-mate Christian Klien appreciated a chance to clock up a decent mileage as he continues to gather experience.
Luca Badoer continued his solo Ferrari test at Monza, clocking a best lap of 1m22.040s.
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m17.462s 83
Jenson Button BAR-Honda M 1m17.477s 27
Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 1m17.904s 69
Ricardo Zonta Toyota M 1m18.212s 78
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m18.289s 124
Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M 1m18.294s 64
Franck Montagny Renault M 1m18.431s 104
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m18.535s 89
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes M1m18.545s 107
Mark Webber Jaguar M 1m18.568s 97
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m18.679s 81
Christian Klien Jaguar M 1m18.695s 92
Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m18.965s 85
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda M no time 3
Share Or Save This Story
Bottas' mental health column is brutal, but also shows how F1 is changing
What does the future behold for M-Sport and partner Ford in the WRC?
Aprilia opens new development path in MotoGP at Jerez test
Formula E to keep the 'biggest asset' of its races for Gen4
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments