Montoya Sets New Valencia Record - Day Two

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya set a new track record at the Valencia circuit on his first day of testing at the Spanish circuit.

The Williams driver clocked a best lap of 1:09.103 to go faster than Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who had set the previous record, six hundredths of a second slower, in January also with a Williams.

Montoya enjoyed a trouble-free day with his BMW-powered FW26 car and covered 85 laps. The Colombian worked alongside test driver Marc Gene, who was only ninth fastest in the second FW26 chassis.

Jenson Button continued to shine in pre-season testing with his BAR-Honda 006, the Briton setting the second quickest time of the session behind Montoya. BAR joined the test today with three cars, the other two driven by Japanese Takuma Sato - fourth fastest - and Briton Anthony Davidson, who was eighth.

Austrian Christian Klien also had a good session with the first of the Jaguars, outpacing his teammate Mark Webber on his way to the third fastest time of the day. Both men worked with the new R5 and Webber was the busiest man on track with a massive 129 laps completed.

The McLaren team, who had kicked off the Valencia test on Tuesday, were again far from the top of the times, and Kimi Raikkonen was sixth fastest. The Finn was involved in a scare in the morning, his car catching fire slightly while his team practiced a pitstop.

Raikkonen's teammate David Coulthard was 10th quickest after his Mercedes engine let go near the end of the session.

Toyota were the other team joining the test today, with both test driver Ricardo Zonta and Cristiano da Matta working with the TF104 chassis. Zonta, who had a busy session, finished as seventh fastest while da Matta posted the slowest time of the day.

Testing at Valencia continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:09.103 85 2. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:09.467 98 3. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:09.514 110 4. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1.09.893 67 5. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:09.894 129 6. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:10.219 101 7. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:10.250 126 8. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:10.299 81 9. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.301 92 10. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:10.412 74 11. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:10.532 45 All Timing Unofficial

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