Montoya Flies with FW26 at Jerez - Day One

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya gave the new Williams FW26 an impressive testing debut by setting the fastest time on the first day of work at the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain.

The radical-looking car, which was unveiled last Monday, had already been tested briefly at the Valencia circuit, but today made its proper debut with Montoya at the wheel.

The South American driver posted a quickest time of 1:16.847, lapping more than four tenths of a second quicker than what his team had managed at the Spanish circuit in December with last year's car.

"Today we worked on the initial set up of the FW26 with Juan Pablo," said Sam Michael, Williams' Chief Operations Engineer. "We've concentrated on trying a variety of different set ups and collecting initial data from the car. Naturally, we have encountered one or two teething problems, as you would expect with a new car, but Juan managed to complete some good mileage."

The Williams driver, who completed 46 laps with the new machine, was over a second quicker than Brazilian tester Ricardo Zonta with the first of the Toyota cars on track today. The other TF103 was driven by racing driver Olivier Panis, who finished at the bottom of the times after 47 laps.

Jarno Trulli was third quickest with the Renault R23, the Italian being the busiest man today with 99 laps. Test driver Franck Montagny was also in action for the French squad and finished as fifth fastest behind Spaniard Marc Gene, who drove the Williams FW25 from last season.

World Champions Ferrari finished near the bottom of the times with two drivers on track today. Brazilian Felipe Massa, getting back to work with Ferrari following his tests with Sauber, was the fastest of the Ferrari duo, outpacing Italian Luca Badoer.

Testing at Jerez resumes tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.847 46 2. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:17.984 72 3. Trulli Renault (M) 1:18.092 99 4. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:18.099 41 5. Montagny Renault (M) 1:18.424 90 6. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:19.002 60 7. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:19.207 60 8. Panis Toyota (M) 1:19.377 47 All Timing Unofficial

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