Montagny Quickest, Badoer Crashes at Jerez

Frenchman Franck Montagny finished on top of the times on the first day of this week's testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in southern Spain.

The Renault test driver posted a quickest time of 1:17.714 to outpace Spaniard Marc Gene by only 0.008 seconds as six Formula One teams got back to work following Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. Renault worked also with Finland's Heikki Kovalainen, who finished as seventh quickest in the second R24 car.

Today's session was filled with incidents, the most serious involving Ferrari's test driver Luca Badoer, who crashed heavily during the morning session after suffering a suspected problem with his car's brakes. The Italian went off track at the Dry Sack corner and crashed against the barriers.

Badoer climbed out of the car on his own, but was taken to the medical center for a check-up. He was unable to resume testing, however, and only completed 18 laps to finish slowest. Montagny and Italian Jarno Trulli were also involved in incidents, both men going off the track, but without any consequences.

Trulli was back in action with the Toyota team in a test that will determine if the Italian races at the Japanese Grand Prix next week. Trulli was sixth quickest at the wheel of the TF104B car.

The BAR-Honda team worked with both Briton Anthony Davidson and Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi, who was back in action with the Brackley-based squad after a brief debut two weeks ago. Davidson was third fastest while Bernoldi finished eighth.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and Austrian Alexander Wurz carried out testing duties for the McLaren team, setting the fourth and fifth quickest times of the day respectively.

Olivier Beretta was back in Formula One action with the Williams team after Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia was forced to miss the test when he sprained his ankle in China. Beretta, using Pizzonia's helmet, replaced the Brazilian and finished as ninth fastest.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Montagny Renault (M) 1:17.714 65 2. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.722 25 3. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:17.806 87 4. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:18.106 55 5. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:18.236 62 6. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:18.500 67 7. Kovalainen Renault (M) 1:18.673 64 8. Bernoldi BAR-Honda (M) 1:18.965 93 9. Beretta Williams-BMW (M) 1:19.017 87 10. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:19.842 18 All Timing Unofficial

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