Pizzonia Ends Silverstone Test on Top

Although rain affected much of the day, the drivers managed to put in some quick laps when a dry line emerged towards the end of the afternoon - allowing Pizzonia to emerge on top.

The Brazilian, who is almost certain to be called-up to replace the injured Nick Heidfeld for Brazil, focused on long runs on intermediates and dry tyres in readiness for the Interlagos race.

Red Bull Racing's Vitantonio Liuzzi maintained his impressive pace from yesterday to set the second fastest time again, just two tenths of a second behind Pizzonia.

Williams' Nico Rosberg, who is continuing to be surrounded by speculation that he could be drafted in for the final two races of the year, was third fastest, four tenths adrift of Pizzonia.

The day was relatively incident free, with Sakon Yamamoto bringing out the first red flag of the day with a spin at Luffield in his Jordan in the morning. Pizzonia stopped the session shortly afterwards when something came loose in the gearbox and it lost oil, before Ralf Schumacher stopped with an engine problem at 11am.

Olivier Panis concluded his work with the B-spec Toyota TF105 in the morning when it was wet. The team had originally planned to give the car to Schumacher but the weather forced them to change their plans, with Panis conducting wet start simulations. Schumacher eventually did 16 laps in the car in the afternoon.

Toyota are due to make a decision about whether they will race the TF105B in the Brazilian Grand Prix after they have evaluated all the data from the test.

Panis told Autosport-Atlas that he was pleased with the progress of the car - and confirmed that the nightmares of its first run at Monza were now well behind them.

"It was a positive week of work with the B," said the Frenchman. "It was a big step forward compared to the last test we had.

"The B car is going in the right direction and it is good in all areas. It is good in both low and high speed corners and has more front grip, although the weather did not help us."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver       Team            Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Pizzonia     Williams-BMW      (M)  1:20.720   64 
 2.  Liuzzi       Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:20.922   39 
 3.  Rosberg      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:21.152   63 
 4.  Klien        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.687   50 
 5.  R.Schumacher Toyota            (M)  1:22.098   33 
 6.  Yamamoto     Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:25.933   68 
 7.  Panis        Toyota            (M)  1:40.684   10 

All Timing Unofficial