Schumacher Fastest Again at Jerez

Italian Grand Prix winner Michael Schumacher set the pace for the second consecutive day in testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain.

The German Ferrari driver had a busy day that saw him posting a time more than eight tenths of a second faster than on the previous day. Schumacher concentrated on tyre testing for Bridgestone, completing 102 laps with a best time of 1:18.456.

Schumacher worked alongside Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn, who made a rare visit to Jerez, the Briton not usually travelling to the testing sessions.

The World Champion finished ahead of Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld, who continued assessing tyres ahead of the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. The German also concentrated on aerodynamic work at the wheel of the Swiss squad's C22.

"Nick has done a good job and run a lot of laps which gave us valuable data," said race engineer Remi Decorzent. "Our work today basically comprised aerodynamic tests and the assessment of the downforce levels in Indianapolis and Suzuka.

"In the afternoon we also conducted a tyre programme to select the most suitable compound for Suzuka. Tomorrow Heinz-Harald will help us to verify the gathered data. We will combine this work with long-runs focused on the evaluation of the tyre performance."

The BAR team joined the Jerez test today and they were the only ones in action with two drivers. Briton Jenson Button outpaced Japanese test driver Takuma Sato, the BAR duo sandwiching Toyota's tester Ricardo Zonta, who was fourth quickest.

"It has been another quite good day with a lot of laps completed," said Zonta. "We have continued our long-term development programme from yesterday and have again worked on the car's set-up and behaviour at this track, which bears some resemblance to parts of the Indianapolis F1 circuit configuration.

"I hope we continue in this productive direction for the last two days of this week's session."

Testing at Jerez resumes tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:18.456 102 2. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:19.242 99 3. Button BAR-Honda (B) 1:20.118 63 4. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:20.307 93 5. Sato BAR-Honda (B) 1:20.421 110 All Timing Unofficial

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