Villeneuve Quickest Again at Jerez

The Sauber team continued to dominate on the fourth day of testing at the Jerez circuit, where Canadian Jacques Villeneuve finished on top of the times for the second day running.

The former World Champion made it three days in a row that Sauber have been quickest at the Spanish circuit, Brazilian Felipe Massa having posted the best time on Wednesday. Villeneuve was the only man capable of lapping in less then 89 seconds in the Michelin-shod Sauber.

"The weather we experienced the last three days was not what you wish for testing, but I believe we were still able to cope with it pretty well," said Sauber's race engineer Giampaolo Dall'Ara. "Because of those bad conditions we couldn't run our programme as originally planned, but we moved our focus to more Michelin tyre work and in this way still learnt quite a lot.

"It also helped us to further gain knowledge of Jacques' driving style, and for him it was a valuable time to acclimatise to the car and the team. Jacques and Felipe covered altogether more than 950 kilometres and we didn't experience technical problems which speaks for reliability and consistency. Overall I'm happy with what we've done."

Once again, the teams were hindered by the poor weather, with the track being wet during the whole session as the rain continued to fall at the track. The wet track caused several incidents, but all without consequences.

Ferrari drivers Luca Badoer and Marc Gene were second and third fastest respectively for the Italian squad who, together with Jordan, were the only ones using Bridgestone tyres amongst the 15 runners. German Ralf Schumacher posted the fourth fastest time in the only Toyota on track as Jarno Trulli continued to sit out the test.

Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella was fifth quickest as he continued acclimatising to the wet weather Michelin tyres, which he tested for the first time on Thursday. He worked alongside French test driver Franck Montagny, 12th fastest today in the second R24.

Alexander Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa resumed testing duties for the McLaren team, while Red Bull Racing drivers Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi wrapped up the team's test at Jerez. Swiss Neel Jani, who was scheduled to drive today, visited the Red Bull pits but did not take to the track.

BAR again had four drivers in action, Japanese Takuma Sato being the quickest of them all in the 2005 concept car. Briton James Rossiter was tenth quickest, outpacing both Enrique Bernoldi and compatriot Adam Carroll, who shared the car with Rossiter.

"It's been a difficult three days in Jerez this week," said BAR's test team manager Andrew Alsworth. "The ever-changing weather has caused constant disruption to our programme, however we have been able to get some useful data by running through a series of Michelin wet tyre evaluations. We are now hoping for much better conditions for next week's five-day test programme."

Testing at Jerez comes to an end tomorrow before resuming next Tuesday.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:28.345 81 2. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:29.191 50 3. Gene Ferrari (B) 1:29.483 54 4. R.Schumacher Toyota (M) 1:29.523 83 5. Fisichella Renault (M) 1:29.814 29 6. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:30.151 33 7. Klien Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:30.379 85 8. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:30.883 66 9. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:31.084 31 10. Rossiter BAR-Honda (M) 1:31.191 43 11. Liuzzi Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:31.876 26 12. Montagny Renault (M) 1:31.935 25 13. Bernoldi BAR-Honda (M) 1:32.414 36 14. Doornbos Jordan-Ford (B) 1:33.465 78 15. Carroll BAR-Honda (M) 1:33.545 35 All Timing Unofficial

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