Villeneuve on Top at Imola - Day One

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve finished on top of the timesheets on the first day of this week's testing at the Imola circuit in Italy.

The 1997 World Champion, however, had a troubled day at the wheel of the BAR-Honda 005, and could only complete 29 laps around the Italian track after he was hit by some mechanical problems.

"It's a fast car, but we seem to have lots of mechanical problems at the moment," the Autosport website quoted Villeneuve as saying. "The car is fast, but if it can't make it to the first pitstop then it's no good, is it?"

Despite that, Villeneuve finished more than a second ahead of Williams' test driver Marc Gene, who concentrated on development work at the wheel of the FW24D chassis while his team also worked at the Jerez circuit.

"The weather has been kinder to us here in Italy than our other test team in Jerez," admitted Williams' test team manager Tim Newton. "Here we have been able to carry out some good work with Marc driving a development of last year's FW24."

Brazilian Cristiano da Matta was slowest with the hybrid Toyota TF102B, in his first test at the Imola track.

"I am happy to visit Imola before the actual San Marino Grand Prix in April, since it is one of the circuits I never drove before, and I really like driving it," said da Matta. "The team did its best to give me as many pre-season testing opportunities as possible and when I get to Melbourne next week I will know 9 of the 16 tracks.

"As for today, we had a very good morning session but a series of small problems in the afternoon. We now hope for a good day tomorrow."

Testing will resume tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:22.900 29 2. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:24.300 76 3. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:25.800 45 All Timing Unofficial

Visit Atlas F1's Testing Center for further information