More progress made by BAR

Button, team-mate Takuma Sato and test driver Anthony Davidson were all in action this week, with the latter sharing his time between Barcelona and Valencia.

"I was able to achieve nearly 1100kms over two days in Valencia, posting 143 laps on Wednesday alone, which is a fantastic result," said Davidson. "I also achieved a personal best lap time during day one in Barcelona - over a second faster than my previous best time there. I'm really looking forward to testing in Vairano next week then competing in Imola [as Friday test driver] in two weeks' time."

Mark Ellis, BAR's chief test engineer, said: "This has been a very productive week of testing. We have completed almost 2,000kms this week, as well as nearly 1,100kms of wet tyre testing at Valencia on Wednesday and Thursday.

"We have successfully tested new aero components for the San Marino Grand Prix, tyres for the Spanish Grand Prix, as well as a new specification engine from Honda. All three drivers have run this week producing extremely competitive lap times and the car has demonstrated excellent reliability. We will continue our developments next week at Paul Ricard and Vairano, ahead of the first European Grand Prix at Imola in two weeks' time."