Jerez 4: Pizzonia flies

Pizzonia unsurprisingly worked through a race simulation as he prepared for his return to F1 racing, a year after last competing for Jaguar in the British Grand Prix. The Brazilian's day was not troublefree however as his BMW engine detonated leaving a huge trail of oil on the circuit.

"We had some problems today," he said. "I am ready though. The most important thing is that I got through the most important part of the programme. I'm really happy and I'm ready to rock and roll!"

Schumacher completed his Bridgestone tyre programme by logging the most laps of the day - 107. The German was not as happy with the tyre compounds as his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello had been earlier in the week, but was confident the team is moving forwards nonetheless.

Takuma Sato was a little dejected after another difficult day that featured a Honda engine failure and a broken gearbox. He had planned a tyre programme and tried a new aero package but things did not quite go to plan.

"It didn't look that optimistic," he said of the aero package afterwards. "The data from the windtunnel was not all that encouraging and I was not happy with what we found. I didn't complete my tyre programme for today and I haven't tested anything for Hockenheim and Hungary. I will have to rely on the data collated by Jenson [Button] and Anthony [Davidson]."

BAR's test driver Davidson was fourth fastest ahead of Williams driver Marc Gene and Ricardo Zonta in the revised Toyota TF104.

Jaguar's Mark Webber was seventh quickest ahead of Heikki Kovaleinen, who on his first full test for Renault was less than a second slower than Pizzonia's fastest lap. Alex Wurz continued to collect tyre data in the old McLaren MP4/19A and was ninth fastest ahead of Christian Klien - overjoyed to have got some data in the bank in only his third full test of the year!

McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa was 11th fastest and Renault's Franck Montagny brought up the rear.

Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m17.400s 58
Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 1m17.415s 107
Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M 1m17.654s 76
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda M 1m17.676s 93
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m17.806s 73
Ricardo Zonta Toyota M 1m17.856s 98
Mark Webber Jaguar M 1m17.949s 83
Heikki Kovaleinen Renault M 1m18.304s 96
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m18.376s 97
Christian Klien Jaguar M 1m18.469s 93
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes M 1m18.529s 83
Franck Montagny Renault M 1m19.134s 104