Ralf Again on Top at Jerez

German Ralf Schumacher topped the timesheets for the second consecutive day of testing at the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain.

The Williams driver, who on Tuesday broke the unofficial track record with his FW25 car, was also the busiest driver today with 106 laps of the Spanish circuit. He finished more than half a second ahead of Briton Jenson Button, whose BAR team began testing at Jerez today.

Button drove last season's 005 chassis, while his teammate Takuma Sato worked with the concept car the Brackley-based squad used last week in testing. The Japanese driver was fourth quickest behind the second Williams, driven by Spaniard Marc Gene.

Following the F1 debut of Nelson Piquet Jr. on Tuesday, it was the turn of another son of a former World Champion to drive a Formula One car for the first time. Finn Nico Rosberg, son of one-time Formula One World Champion Keke, debuted with the Williams team.

20-year old Rosberg covered 42 laps despite a spin and was almost a whole second quicker than what Piquet had managed the previous day.

World Champions Ferrari joined the action today, with three drivers at the wheel of the F2003-GA car. Italian Luca Badoer was the quickest of the trio, outpacing Brazilians Felipe Massa and Luciano Burti, who concentrated mainly on tyre testing.

The Jordan team got back to action for the first time since the end of the 2003 season today, working with two new drivers. German Nick Heidfeld, who has a provisional contract with the team, and Czech Jarek Janis began their familiarisation programmes with the Jordan Ford EJ13.

Heidfeld was the quickest of the two, with Janis finishing at the bottom of the times.

"It was a nice day, my first time in a Formula One car after a few weeks and my first day with the Jordan team," said Heidfeld. "I was quite happy with how the test worked, although we had a problem with the gearbox, a lot of red flags and unfortunately some rain in the afternoon.

"I got familiar with the car after a couple of outings, and with my engineer I've identified a few small changes I'd still like to make. The car was better to drive than I expected and it has been a nice atmosphere - I get on well with the people in the team. It was good and I'm looking forward to the next two days."

The session was hit by rain some 40 minutes before the end.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.785 106 2. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:18.292 51 3. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:18.422 35 4. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:18.692 73 5. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:19.074 63 6. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:19.468 61 7. Rosberg Williams-BMW (M) 1:19.544 42 8. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:20.004 22 9. Burti Ferrari (B) 1:20.004 27 10. Janis Jordan-Ford (B) 1:21.980 50 All Timing Unofficial

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