Pizzonia Tops the Times at Paul Ricard - Day Two

Brazil's Antonio Pizzonia finished on top of the timesheets on the second day of testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

Williams test driver Pizzonia was one of five drivers who joined the test today after the McLaren and Toyota teams had kicked off their programmes at the Le Castellet track on Tuesday with their test drivers.

On a very windy day, Pizzonia went quickest in the first of the BMW-powered FW26 cars, while Spanish teammate Marc Gene was fourth fastest behind the two BAR-Hondas of Briton Anthony Davidson and Japanese Takuma Sato.

The duo began BAR's preparations for the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix, with Davidson, who drove the '04 concept car, finishing less than a tenth of a second ahead of Sato, who drove this year's 006 chassis.

McLaren's test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Alexander Wurz continued working with the British squad's MP4-19 car, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. Toyota also had two cars on track, with Ricardo Zonta and Ryan Briscoe doing the driving.

Frenchman Franck Montagny was in action for the Renault team, the test driver focussing on tyre development, testing compounds for the San Marino Grand Prix. Montagny, who drove last year's R23 car, finished as eighth quickest after 112 laps.

"We conducted tyre development with Franck today," said Renault's chief test engineer Christian Silk. "This week will be the last outing for the R23 in our testing programme but unfortunately, high winds hampered Franck's work throughout the day."

Testing continues tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.501 94 2. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:11.728 127 3. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:11.806 115 4. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:12.060 89 5. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:12.126 67 6. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:12.317 98 7. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:12.740 134 8. Montagny Renault (M) 1:13.989 112 9. Briscoe Toyota (M) 1:14.987 23 All Timing Unofficial

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