Montoya Crushes Lap Record at Valencia - Final Day

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya shattered the unofficial Valencia circuit record on the final day of testing at the Spanish track on Sunday.

The Williams driver, at the wheel of the new FW24 and in front of team bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head, set a blistering best lap of 1:10.977, more than one second faster than the previous best, set by Finn Kimi Raikkonen last month with the new McLaren car.

Montoya finished nearly one second ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher, whose time was also better than Raikkonen's previous record. The Grove-based squad were pleased with their work, both at Barcelona and at Valencia this week.

"I have to credit the test team, many of whom have been working here in Spain without respite since January 5," said Sam Michael, Williams' chief operations engineer. "What we have managed to pack into a five-week window has been little short of remarkable.

"We have broken the back of the objectives we set ourselves, and we are satisfied with the performance and reliability of the new car. The work has uncovered plenty of areas to focus our efforts on, and despite the energies committed so far, have plenty of work ahead of us."

The quickest of the four British American Racing drivers present at the circuit was Frenchman Olivier Panis driving the Honda-powered 004. Panis, who was the busiest man today after completing a total of 80 laps, was nearly two seconds off Montoya's pace.

The Formula One teams will return to Valencia next week.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.977 63 2. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.787 68 3. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 1:12.606 80 4. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:13.037 50 5. Fukuda BAR-Honda (B) 1:14.180 43 6. Davidson BAR-Honda (B) 1:15.266 7 All Timing Unofficial

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