Pizzonia confirms test role

Antonio Pizzonia has confirmed to autosport.com that he will serve as the Williams team's second test driver this season, after smashing the Valencia lap record during testing yesterday (Thursday)

The Brazilian tested for Williams in 2002, before his troubled season with Jaguar last year. He has been the favourite to land the role of second test driver since the team confirmed at the launch of the FW26 that it was looking for another driver to support Marc Gene.

"I'm going to be with Williams for the whole year," Pizzonia told autosport.com. "I'm happy to be back with the team. I can now help them with results. If I could help the team to get the championship this year that'd be great.

"I'm very, very happy. My plan is to get a race drive for 2005. I intend to work very hard for that."

Pizzonia took a while to adjust to driving F1 machinery yesterday, but claimed that he wasn't surprised to break the lap record. As he was quick to note, he had previously set the record for Jaguar until it was eclipsed by David Coulthard last week.

"It's strange to be in the car because I haven't driven for six months, which is the longest time I've been out of the car," he said. "It took a while to come back. Yesterday I was not happy but sad, because I struggled with the car.

"But before I came here, I knew I could beat the lap record. If I could do a 1m10.9s in a Jaguar, I thought why not?!"