Valencia 1: Gene sets pace

Williams had Gene on a 1m10.198s, although Sauber reckoned Michael Schumacher, who had two F2003-GAs at his disposal, had set the quickest time. Williams had Schumacher next up, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in a second FW26.

Williams' chief operations engineer Sam Michael said: "The first day of testing at Valencia has gone well. Both Juan Pablo and Marc were running the FW26s with Juan concentrating on mechanical set-up work in the morning followed by electronics testing in the afternoon. Marc ran a similar programme combined with tyre testing in the afternoon."

Felipe Massa was fourth fastest in his Sauber-Petronas, not bad considering it was only meant to be the shakedown of the Swiss team's second C23 chassis.

Jarno Trulli (Renault), Olivier Panis (Toyota) and Renault tester Franck Montagny were next up, ahead of BAR-Honda duo Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato. Mark Webber continued Jaguar's dismal test pace thus far with the 10th fastest time.

Behind Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta, Minardi brought up the rear on its first test of 2004. Gianmaria Bruni drove the car, and will do so again on Wednesday morning, before he hands over to new team-mate Zsolt Baumgartner.

Bruni said: "I am pretty satisfied with the first day of testing here in Valencia. The car is much better than in Vallelunga [in December], and this means the guys have done an excellent job preparing the PS04 chassis. I am very happy and looking forward to tomorrow, when we plan to do some long runs, as well concentrate on the new software for 2004."


1 Marc Gene, Williams-BMW, M, 1m10.198s 74
2 Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, B, 1m10.408s 111
3 Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, M, 1m10.466s 82
4 Felipe Massa, Sauber-Petronas, B, 1m11.203s 95
5 Jarno Trulli, Renault, M, 1m11.375s 59
6 Olivier Panis, Toyota, M, 1m11.770s 85
7 Franck Montagny, Renault, M, 1m11.778s 111
8 Anthony Davidson, BAR-Honda, M, 1m12.094s 67
9 Takuma Sato, BAR-Honda, M, 1m12.193s 64
10 Mark Webber, Jaguar-Cosworth, M, 1m12.322s 52
11 Ricardo Zonta, Toyota, M, 1m12.762s 97
12 Gianmaria Bruni, Minardi-Cosworth, B, 1m12.925s 75