Montagny on Top for Renault at Jerez

Four Formula One teams were in action today at the Jerez circuit to wrap up their testing programme for the week.

The McLaren and Toyota teams were also scheduled to test today, but they decided not to after the track was wet in the morning due to some overnight showers - with only 30 days testing available to them due to their testing agreement, they decided not to waste one in the wet.

Renault, BAR, Williams, and Ferrari completed their programmes despite the track conditions, which improved throughout the day until the teams could finally run on dry tarmac.

Franck Montagny finished the day on top of the times with the Renault R25, the French test driver posting a fastest time of 1:18.258. Renault had two drivers again in action, with Heikki Kovalainen driving the R24 chassis on his way to the fifth fastest time. Both drivers were working on their Bahrain spec package.

BAR's Anthony Davidson with the 007 chassis, and Enrique Bernoldi in the hybrid 006 were second and third quickest respectively. Bernoldi was also working on BAR's Bahrain spec tyres, while Davidson was on control tyres to continue yesterday's programme for aero improvements.

"We are making an improvement," he noted, "it's definitely going to be better than Australia, and much more drivable." Davidson and Kovalainen forced the only two red flags of the day due to apparent mechanical problems.

World Champions Ferrari finished at the bottom of the times with their drivers Luca Badoer and Marc Gene. The Italian was again working with the new F2005 while Gene drove the F2004M with which Ferrari competed in Australia.

Badoer did not run in the morning due to the rain, and a small mechanical problem stopped him in the afternoon, but generally the mood in the Ferrari camp is upbeat about the new car.

Formula One testing won't return to Jerez until June. Ferrari will test in Mugello for four days during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Montagny Renault (M) 1:18.258 93 2. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:18.550 105 3. Bernoldi BAR-Honda (M) 1:19.237 99 4. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:19.567 70 5. Kovalainen Renault (M) 1:19.980 84 6. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:20.677 32 7. Gene Ferrari (B) 1:21.319 64 All Timing Unofficial

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