Ralf Shatters Jerez Record; Badoer Crashes (Updated)

Williams's Ralf Schumacher shattered the lap record at Jerez on the final day of testing prior to the Australian Grand Prix, the German posting a time almost one second faster than the previous best. At the same time, Ferrari's test driver Luca Badoer escaped injury as he crashed the F2003-GA - the first accident for the 2003 car.

The previous lap record at Jerez, of 1:18.392, was posted three months ago by Ferrari test driver, Luca Badoer. The first to break the record was McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen who, despite repeated engine problems - also suffered by his teammate David Coulthard - set a time of 1:17.944, only to end up second fastest of the day when Ralf Schumacher bettered that record, setting a time of 1:17.611.

"Our winter testing program concluded today in Jerez with Juan and Ralf," Sam Michael, chief operating officer for Williams, said today. "Juan tested in wet conditions for two days and worked on wet tyres with Michelin as well as doing some aero and electronic testing. Ralf spent most of the time on dry tyres, completing a full race simulation, tyre testing for Melbourne and Malaysia and evaluating new aero components for Melbourne. Additionally, Marc was testing tyre compounds and brakes in Imola.

"The test team have been on the road since Christmas and have progressed through a lot of items before the season starts. With the FW25 we have solved a lot of reliability and performance issues associated with a new car and are now looking forward to Melbourne."

Also on track today was Badoer for Ferrari, as well as Cristiano da Matta for Toyota and David Coulthard for McLaren - all three encountering problems through the day. For Brazilian da Matta it was minor transmission problems, although the new Toyota driver said he was satisfied with the day's progress.

"We had a good session today and we managed to work extensively on different areas of the car," the Brazilian said. "I was happy to be back in the TF103 for my last day of testing this week, and it was good to get a feeling for it again. I completed over 2,000 kms with the new car since early January and I feel really positive about it. The team gave me the chance to experience several different tracks, I learnt as much as possible from everything, but I think you never feel completely ready anyway. Now I am really looking forward to the race one week away and to get into it for real!"

Italian Badoer had the dubious honour of being the first to crash the F2003-GA. He lost control of the car under braking into curva Dry Sack, the car flying into the tyre barriers at high speed. He was taken to the medical centre for a routine check, but was released after being diagnosed with no injuries.

Ferrari said in a statement later on that the accident occurred as a result of a technical problem, traced to the right rear corner of the car, which occurred under braking. Engineers will study the causes of the problem once the car is back in Maranello.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.611 75 2. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.944 83 3. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:18.962 47 4. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:19.015 67 5. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:19.118 58 All Timing Unofficial

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