Pizzonia Finishes Jerez Test on Top - Final Day

Antonio Pizzonia finished on top of the timesheets on the final day of testing at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain.

The Williams driver, who will return to Grand Prix racing in Germany next week when he replaces Ralf Schumacher, posted the fastest time of the week to outpace World Champion Michael Schumacher in the only Ferrari on track.

Pizzonia, who was hit by mechanical problems in the morning, finished just 15 thousandths of a second ahead of Schumacher, the busiest man today.

BAR drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were third and fourth quickest respectively, although the Japanese driver's day finished with an spectacular engine blow-up. Despite that, Sato managed 76 laps during the session.

Brazilian test driver Ricardo Zonta completed Toyota's four-day test at the Spanish circuit, the test driver again at the wheel of the TF104 car. He was the only Toyota driver in action after Olivier Panis completed his work with the updated TF104B yesterday.

"We now head to Hockenheim and as a team we are very optimistic about the TF104B. We need something to produce results, and we hope that is exactly what we're going to have," said Zonta, sixth today.

Australian Mark Webber was seventh fastest in the first of the Jaguars, while his Austrian teammate Christian Klien wound up 10th.

Heikki Kovalainen was back in action after testing for Renault on Wednesday, the Finn posting the eighth quickest time as he continued acclimatising to the demands of an F1 car. Kovalainen outpaced Renault's test driver Franck Montagny, slowest after 104 laps.

Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa wrapped up McLaren's four-day test at Jerez, both drivers working with the MP4-19 once more.

The Jerez test was the final one before the summer testing ban comes into effect.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.400 58 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:17.415 107 3. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:17.546 76 4. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:17.676 93 5. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.806 73 6. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:17.856 98 7. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:17.949 83 8. Kovalainen Renault (M) 1:18.304 96 9. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:18.376 97 10. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.469 93 11. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:18.529 83 12. Montagny Renault (M) 1:19.134 104 All Timing Unofficial

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