Renault Trio Dominate Friday Test at Monza

Will Gray

Italian Jarno Trulli set the fastest lap of the morning testing session at Monza as he led the three Renault drivers at the top of the timesheets ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Trulli set a time of 1:22.083 secs to finish four tenths of a second ahead of Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso, who won the last race in Hungary three weeks ago. The team's Scottish test driver Allan McNish finished third fastest, just three hundredths of a second off the pace of Alonso, as the Renault team dominated once again.

Australian Mark Webber was best of the rest for Jaguar but his time was 1.108 seconds slower than Trulli. He was three tenths of a second faster than British teammate Justin Wilson. Dutchman Jos Verstappen finished fifth fastest for Minardi ahead of the Jordan of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, with the team's test driver Gianmaria Bruni seventh.

Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner, who will replace Jordan's injured driver Ralph Firman in this weekend's Grand Prix, and Dane Nicolas Kiesa, of Minardi, completed the timesheet. Both Alonso and Trulli had brief spins, at turns four and five respectively, in an otherwise incident-free session run at temperatures of 20 degrees under blue skies.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Trulli Renault (M) 1:22.083 254.070 km/h 44 2. Alonso Renault (M) 1:22.507 + 0.424 40 3. McNish Renault (M) 1:22.533 + 0.450 40 4. Webber Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:23.191 + 1.108 45 5. Wilson Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:23.541 + 1.458 35 6. Verstappen Minardi Cosworth (B) 1:23.999 + 1.916 28 7. Fisichella Jordan Ford (B) 1:24.026 + 1.943 39 8. Bruni Minardi Cosworth (B) 1:24.318 + 2.235 27 9. Baumgartner Jordan Ford (B) 1:25.210 + 3.127 34 10. Kiesa Minardi Cosworth (B) 1:26.296 + 4.213 11 All Timing Unofficial