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Ralf goes fastest at Valencia

Ralf Schumacher gave his Toyota team a morale boost ahead of the start of the 2007 season after going quickest on the third day of testing at the Valencia circuit

The German driver, who made his debut at the wheel of the new TF107 car yesterday, posted the fastest time of the week so far, beating Fernando Alonso's benchmark from Tuesday by over a whole second.

The world champion finished down in fourth position today in the McLaren MP4-22.

Schumacher was over three tenths faster than Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in the first of the Renaults, on a day where the teams were finally able to work in sunny and dry conditions throughout the whole session.

Fisichella's teammate Heikki Kovalainen was third fastest as the French squad covered well over 200 laps between their two drivers.

Alonso himself covered nearly 100 laps as he continued with the development work in the new Mercedes-powered car. The Spaniard, fastest on the first two days, worked again alongside test driver Pedro de la Rosa, who will be joined tomorrow by Lewis Hamilton, returning to work after his crash last week.

Kimi Raikkonen was sixth quickest in the Ferrari F2007, the Finn covering 66 laps. Raikkonen caused one of the red flags of the day when he stopped on track with an apparent engine problem.

The dry weather finally allowed the teams and drivers to get on with some serious set-up work, and also meant Bridgestone could continue evaluation of their latest rubber.

In the morning, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld became the first driver to try out the third compound of Bridgestone tyres that will be used this season.

It is the softest that has been run so far, and by the late afternoon almost all the runners had begun experimenting with it. It is thought that only Alonso remained on the harder compound available.

Jenson Button took over from teammate Rubens Barrichello behind the wheel of the new Honda RA107.

The Japanese squad continued off the top of the times, with Button finishing over a second off Schumacher's pace, and causing one of the red flags of the day.

The Red Bull Racing team also had another low-key session, with Briton David Coulthard finishing down as 12th fastest behind compatriot Anthony Davidson in the only Super Aguri on track.

Coulthard's teammate Mark Webber shook down the second RB3 chassis, which arrived last night at Valencia.

Williams' Kazuki Nakajima finished at the bottom of the times after another troubled day, the Japanese causing two red flags.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:11.297   60
 2.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  1:11.621  121
 3.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  1:11.643  108
 4.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:11.710   95
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:11.989   99
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:12.360   66
 7.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.361   69
 8.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:12.418   98
 9.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:12.857   20
10.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:12.976   77
11.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:13.143  133
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.450   59
13.  Rossiter      Honda                (B)  1:13.728   03
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.796   23
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:13.945   82

All Timing Unofficial

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