Raikkonen Sets New Valencia Record on Final Day

McLaren continued their impressive pre-season testing, when Kimi Raikkonen broke the track record at Valencia today.

The Finn, testing alongside McLaren's test driver Alex Wurz and the Jaguar racing drivers, set a time of 1:10.937, improving the record by four hundredths of a second.

Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya had shattered the record four days ago, setting a time of 1:10.977 - an improvement of over a second from last year's record. Now McLaren has responded by lowering the record a notch further.

Today was the final day for McLaren and Jaguar at Valencia. Both teams completed tyre testing for Michelin as well as testing various aerodynamic components.

At the end of testing, Jaguar's team boss, Niki Lauda, professed himself happy with the progress made over the past two days. "It's been a positive step forward in terms of making revisions to the car but the three month testing ban is something that we, like many other teams, could have done without," said Lauda. "Ideally, we could have done with five or six days, but we have certainly made the most of our time here."

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:10.937 84 2. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.914 92 3. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:13.215 46 4. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:14.978 49 All Timing Unofficial

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