Montoya Breaks Valencia Record - Day One

Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya began the off-season testing with a new lap record for the Spanish Valencia circuit.

The Colombian set a time of 1:10.081 - just 9 thousandths of a second faster than the previous fastest time, set by Antonio Pizzonia last year with the Jaguar.

Montoya was leading a Williams trio who set the pace in testing today, with teammate Ralf Schumacher some 6 tenths of a second behind, and test driver Marc Gene a further half a second behind.

"The day started relatively slowly but soon picked up by mid-morning," commented Williams's Test Team Manager, Tim Newton. "The team spent the session testing chassis set-ups and evaluating tyre compounds with Michelin. We also successfully ran our new gearbox. By the end of the session, our drivers had recorded the fastest times of the field and completed a total of 163 laps."

Much of the attention of the day was given to the new McLaren MP4/19, who was running for the first time today in the hands of David Coulthard, while McLaren's test driver Alex Wurz continued testing in the MP4/17D. The car suffered minor problems in the morning session, but the team tagged these as "teething problems" and said there were no major surprises.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.081 69 2. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.718 37 3. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.224 57 4. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.299 53 5. Montagny Renault (M) 1:11.823 84 6. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:11.876 37 7. Trulli Renault (M) 1:11.950 89 8. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:11.955 84 9. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:12.035 47 10. Bell Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:12.330 63 11. Briscoe Toyota (M) 1:12.660 71

Visit Atlas F1's Testing Center for further information