Jerez day 3: Sato quickest

BAR-Honda's Japanese test driver Takuma Sato set the fastest time in testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain today (Friday), after spending the day working on tyre and engine developments

Sato set his time on a low fuel run near the end of the day, although he spent much of the test evaluating two new specifications of Honda's V10 engine.

The two engines were modified versions of the motor that BAR used on Friday in Melbourne, until reliability troubles, forced the team to revert to a less powerful unit for the remainder of the race meeting. Honda's engineers are confident they have now fixed the problem, and plan to use the engine in Malaysia.

Ralf Schumacher set the second fastest time of the day, despite being side-lined for five hours with a clutch problem, although the German did claim that it had been "a very productive day."

Most of the teams in action were concentrating on tyre work, and McLaren test driver Alex Wurz was very happy with the progress made by Michelin. "We've found two good compounds," he told autosport.com. "I think we're going to have very, very good tyres in Malaysia again."

Pedro de la Rosa, completed 102 laps for McLaren, and continued to impress the team with his feedback. "I've done lots of long runs today, and I have no problems with the seat now," he told autosport.com. "It's such a good team and I now know what testing really means, because when you go testing with McLaren you really go testing!"

Takuma Sato BAR-Honda B 1m18.711s 87
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m18.739s 67
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m18.980s 65
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.557 98*
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.668s 102*

* denotes 2002 car
B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin