Valencia 2: Davidson on top

Davidson, again in BAR's hybrid car, continued trying out the squad's new suspension components but, like Ferrari, Williams, Toyota, Renault and McLaren who also attended the pre-Malaysia test, they were unable to achieve anything conclusive thanks to the tricky wet-dry-wet conditions that prevailed all day.

In fact, on an unusually cool day when the temperature rarely topped 16 degrees Celsius, there was only around one hour's worth of completely dry running between 2pm and 3pm, and this was when the quickest times were set.

Lots of teams were hoping to give their dry, hot weather tyres a run ahead of next weekend's Grand Prix in Sepang, Malaysia which, along with the following GP in Bahrain, is expected to be run in very hot conditions.

Bridgestone especially were planning to continue running tests on the eight specifications of tyre they have ahead of Malaysia, but for them the day was a total loss, as neither of Ferrari's representatives Rubens Barrichello or Luca Badoer could get a clear and sustained run before more rain fell.

It was ironic that Ferrari was the only team to run one of its race drivers at the test as, based on Australia, the Italian team has the least work to do, but such is the squad's determination to keep the momentum going. Barrichello set the second-quickest time of the day despite only completing 18 laps.

Davidson managed to get some running on Michelin's wet and intermediate tyre and, although he reckoned the intermediate was better, it was still not a patch on Bridgestone's version of the same tyre, on which Barrichello went two seconds quicker in damp conditions later in the afternoon.

BAR's engine supplier Honda was also testing some lighter components as the Japanese company tries to lose some weight from its unit ahead of next month's San Marino Grand Prix. Toyota testers Ricardo Zonta and Ryan Briscoe were supposed to be conducting aero tests but the team had to resort to tweaking its wet set-up instead.

The greasy track conditions meant several drivers had offs, none of them major. Renault's Franck Montagny spun while doing some work on his car's electrics. McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa caused a red flag when his car suffered a technical problem, while Williams test driver Marc Gene spun once and stopped later in the afternoon with a fuel sensor failure.

Teams will be hoping that the better weather forecast for tomorrow (Thursday) allows some more productive work.


Anthony Davidson BAR 1m11.966s 71
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1m12.059s 18
Marc Gene Williams 1m12.918s 89
Ricardo Zonta Toyota 1m12.139s 57
Franck Montagny Renault* 1m12.657s 54
Ryan Briscoe Toyota 1m12.920s 51
Luca Badoer Ferrari* 1m22.864s 28
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren 1m22.925s 30
*2003 car