McLaren Still Ahead of Williams at Valencia - Day Two

McLaren drivers David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz outshadowed the Williams team for the second consecutive day at the Valencia circuit, where both squads are carrying out a three-day test.

Scot Coulthard was quickest today with the MP4-17, as the Woking-based outfit continued assessing the Michelin tyres to be used at the Australian Grand Prix next week. Coulthard was nearly four tenths of a second quicker than test driver Wurz, who was the busiest man on track today, completing a massive 111 laps.

Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest of the Williams duo, the Colombian being almost 1.5 seconds slower than Coulthard after 77 laps. Spanish test driver Marc Gene finished the day at the bottom of the timesheets with the second Williams FW24.

"We have spent an enormous amount of time preparing cars late into the night on Monday and Tuesday," said Tim Newton, Williams test team manager. "Many of the test team have worked some extremely long hours with maybe three hours sleep for two nights in succession.

"Coming at the end of one of the longest winters of testing, I have to thank the dedication and commitment of everybody involved to keep the programme running today, and we managed to generate useful data and ticked some important pre-Melbourne jobs off the list."

Both teams will finish their programme at Valencia on Friday, when they are expected to test on an artificially watered track.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.296 83 2. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.659 111 3. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:12.751 77 4. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:12.826 94 All Timing Unofficial

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