Renault Continue to Shine at Barcelona - Day Two

Times continued to improve on the second day of this week's testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, with Renault again showing impressive form.

After Fernando Alonso topped the times yesterday, it was his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella who, with a best lap of 1:14.408, finished on top of the times. Both men were again working with the R25 car.

Fisichella's laptime was over half a second quicker than Alonso's time from yesterday.

"Difficult conditions first thing this morning meant we were unable to begin working on tyre development straight away, but we continued running in order to put more miles on the new car," explained Renault's Chief Test Engineer Christian Silk.

"Both drivers conducted tyre testing for the first races of the year, which gave very promising results, as well as race weekend simulations to allow them to acclimatise to the revised format for this season.

"Overall, things seem very positive: the car is well balanced, the balance remains consistent on long runs and it is looking after its tyres well, which will hopefully mean the drivers are well equipped to continue attacking until the end of the races this year."

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta continued to shine in the old Toyota TF104B, setting the second fastest time of the day while his teammate Jarno Trulli was again at the wheel of the revised TF105.

Trulli had a productive day and covered a total of 120 laps, nearly two Grand Prix distances, on his way to the ninth quickest time.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa carried out testing duties for the McLaren team, both men driving the MP4-20. De la Rosa replaced Kimi Raikkonen, who was forced to sit out today's session after a heavy crash yesterday in which he injured a thumb.

David Coulthard was again the fastest of the Red Bull drivers, outpacing Christian Klien, who took over from Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi in the second RB1.

Williams driver Mark Webber wound up seventh as he continued working on the development of the FW27 car. The Australian was joined by teammate Nick Heidfeld, the German replacing Brazilian test driver Antonio Pizzonia.

The Bridgestone runners had another unimpressive day, with Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello finishing at the fastest of the four. The Brazilian was only eighth quickest, finishing ahead of World Champion Michael Schumacher, 12th today. Both men drove the F2004M car.

Jordan drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro again finished way off the pace in the Toyota-powered EJ15 cars. The Indian, who was nearly five seconds off Fisichella's pace, outpaced his teammate by almost six tenths of a second.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Fisichella Renault (M) 1:14.408 87 2. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:14.502 91 3. Alonso Renault (M) 1:14.552 75 4. Montoya McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:15.199 119 5. Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:15.418 113 6. Klien Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:15.673 79 7. Webber Williams-BMW (M) 1:15.841 70 8. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:15.912 116 9. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:16.060 120 10. Heidfeld Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.077 93 11. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:16.133 63 12. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:16.188 76 13. Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:19.179 76 14. Monteiro Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:19.718 32 All Timing Unofficial

View today's Full Laptimes from the Barcelona track

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