Magny-Cours test, day 1: Montoya fast

Button was just 0.045secs slower than the Colombian, who set pole position at Spa-Francorchamps. The Briton's running was cut short, however, by an problem with his Renault engine.

"We had a valuable day's testing," said Benetton's technical director Mike Gascoyne. "Our lap times are again very competitive and overall it was a pleasing day, engine problem aside."

Benetton's test driver Mark Webber will take over from Button on Friday, subject to him recovering fully from his Spa Formula 3000 crash.

Williams test driver Marc Gene was third quickest, just ahead of Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. Marcel Fassler, who was scheduled to test for the Swiss outfit this week, won't now get a run but will test for McLaren instead.

Formula 3000 frontrunner Tomas Enge sampled a Formula 1 car for the first time, and was just a second slower than Montoya's time in a Prost-Acer.

"He set very consistent lap times right from the start," said John Walton, Prost's sporting director. "And proved throughout the day he had very good technical feedback."

Enge will run again tomorrow, with a possibility of extending his running into Friday morning.


Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, 1m15.366s, 45
Jenson Button, Benetton-Renault, 1m15.401s, 45
Marc Gene, Williams-BMW, 1m15.606s, 74
Nick Heidfeld, Sauber-Petronas, 1m15.620s, 47
Tomas Enge, Prost-Acer, 1m16.322s, 63