Schumacher Fastest at Valencia

World Champion Michael Schumacher finished on top of the times on his final day of testing at the Valencia circuit in southern Spain.

The German Ferrari driver, at the wheel of the modified F2004 car, posted a best time of 1:10.209 after a massive 121 laps. Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello, who drove the F2004M, completed the team's programme at Valencia.

Jenson Button, in the BAR-Honda 007, was second fastest as the Brackley-based squad wrapped up an intensive session, again with four drivers in action. Enrique Bernoldi took over from Takuma Sato at the wheel of the second 007, while Adam Carroll and Alan van der Merwe again shared the old 006.

Nick Heidfeld managed the fourth quickest time of the day, outpacing teammate Mark Webber, both men driving the new FW27. Toyota's Jarno Trulli was the quickest of the three drivers from the Japanese squad on track, the Italian happy with the progress made with the new TF105.

"The car has been pretty reliable and it also seems to be quick and competitive," said Trulli at the end of the test. "Our best times compared quite favourably with the others, but there are still some problems with consistency over longer runs.

"We still have three weeks to go before we leave for Melbourne so we will now investigate what's happening and we hope to resolve that as soon as possible."

Trulli and Schumacher were joined by test driver Ricardo Zonta, who carried out a shakedown for the wet tyre test planned for tomorrow at the wheel of the 2004 car.

"Looking at the last two tests we look slightly better than we expected," said Ralf. "Here at Valencia most of the cars were generally putting in times within about half a second of each other. So we're pleased with what we've seen so far and we appear to be pretty competitive.

"But exactly how competitive we'll only find out in Melbourne when everyone brings what they think is the best package they have."

Toyota will be the only team in action tomorrow at Valencia, carrying our wet weather testing behind closed doors.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:10.209 121 2. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:10.599 120 3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:10.601 100 4. Heidfeld Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.748 90 5. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:10.814 100 6. Webber Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.049 89 7. R.Schumacher Toyota (M) 1:11.635 88 8. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:11.841 13 9. Bernoldi BAR-Honda (M) 1:12.298 29 10. Carroll BAR-Honda (M) 1:12.582 24 11. van der Merwe BAR-Honda (M) 1:13.112 53 All Timing Unofficial

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