Silverstone, day 3: Ralf tops Button

Less than a second covered the top seven cars on a day of changeable conditions, but with a best time of 1m22.142s it was the winner of this year's Malaysian GP who came out on top. In-form Jenson Button was just fractions adrift and the Englishman is more than happy with the progress the Renault team is making.

"The car is working well in medium downforce set-up around here," he said, "which stands us in good stead for Barcelona. We know it's going to be tough to beat McLaren there, but that's what we're aiming for."

Olivier Panis was third quickest for the improving BAR team, while team-mate Jacques Villeneuve was seventh. On his first visit to Silverstone Felipe Massa was eighth fastest and enjoyed his experience.

"Silverstone was a new circuit for me and I really like it," said Massa. "There are quite a lot of quick corners and it is not so easy to get familiar with, but I was happy to be very close to Nick's lap time from yesterday. That was not such a bad beginning."

Pedro de la Rosa had his first experience of Cosworth's much improved engine, although the Spaniard had an undisclosed problem which limited his running, and he was ninth in the times.


Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m22.142s 42
Jenson Button Renault M 1m22.295s 24
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda B 1m22.377s 45
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m22.406s 54
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda B 1m22.524s 54
Takuma Sato Jordan-Honda B 1m22.890s 47
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m22.970s 50
Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas B 1m23.375s 45
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m23.678s 27
Heinz-Harald Frentzen B 1m24.630s 32
Mark Webber Minardi-Asiatech M 1m26.203s 21

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone