Jerez day 1: Alonso sets early pace

Heavy overnight rain meant the four-day test kicked off on a damp track and surprisingly, given the sunny weather and 17-degree temperatures, wet patches remained on the circuit until late morning.

The track was dry in the afternoon, and the times came down accordingly, which allowed Alonso to set a best mark of 1m21.782s. The Spaniard was running Renault's unique new suspension system (see separate story), fitted to one of this year's R202 chassis.

McLaren tester driver Alex Wurz was next up, less than a tenth down on the Renault and only a thousandth up on Ralf Schumacher. The Williams driver was putting Michelin's tyres through their paces and was one of the session's busiest drivers, clocking up 81 laps of the former GP venue.

Only Jaguar's Antonio Pizzonia did more - 87 - as he racked up the miles for his new team. Team-mate Mark Webber was in the opposite boat as he once again experienced problems with Cosworth's new V10 engine.

"It was not a good day," the Australian admitted. "We had some problems, but not the same ones as we had at Barcelona. It's a shame because we really need mileage at the moment."

Webber brought out one of the day's two red flags when his R3C stopped on track. The other came when Wurz's McLaren was halted by a technical problem while on track.


Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m21.782s 71
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m21.868s 48
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m21.872s 81
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m22.424s 44
Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar M 1m23.035s 87
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m23.401s 46
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m23.811s 60
Mark Webber Jaguar M 1m24.276s 24

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone