Williams Duo Dominate in the Wet

The Williams team dominated a very wet third day of testing at the Barcelona circuit, where 14 drivers were in action today.

German Ralf Schumacher and Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya finished on top of the times in their Michelin-shod FW25s. Williams, as well as the rest of the teams present at the Spanish circuit, took advantage of the conditions to concentrate on wet weather testing.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who had failed to set a time in the morning, had a more productive afternoon session as he continued to work with the Jordan EJ13. Fisichella completed 25 laps and posted the third fastest time in the first of the Bridgestone-shod cars. Teammate Ralph Firman was fifth in his first outing with a Formula One car in the wet.

The Renault team again worked with all their three drivers today, with Italian Jarno Trulli and Spaniard Fernando Alonso driving the new R23 while test driver Allan McNish was at the wheel of last year's R202 chassis. Trulli switched cars with Alonso today, testing with the new aerodynamic package for the first time.

Trulli, however, was unable to take advantage of the components, and finished as the slowest men today after just an installation lap. The team decided not to run Trulli's car in order to avoid possible damage of the car in extremely slippery conditions of the circuit.

Meanwhile Alonso finished as fourth fastest and McNish was down in 13th after only 13 laps.

"The cold and wet conditions at Barcelona today meant that we could run a limited number of laps with Fernando Alonso in the hybrid R23 carrying out some wet tyre evaluations for Michelin," said Mike Gascoyne, Renault technical director. "As most of our programme requires dry running, we hope for better weather tomorrow."

Australian Mark Webber and Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia were in charge of the testing duties for the Jaguar team, who kicked off a three-day programme today. Webber was sixth quickest, while Pizzonia wound up 10th fastest as both men continued with the development of the Cosworth-powered R4.

Toyota's Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta worked with the TF103 and TF102B chassis respectively, with the Frenchman, fastest on Tuesday, outpacing the Brazilian CART champion by more than four seconds. Panis admitted he was delighted with the performance of the Michelin tyres.

"The TF103 car feels quite good to drive in the wet conditions, I have to say," admitted Panis. "We did a lot of set-up work today and Michelin have made a big step forward with the wet tyres; we found some interesting things today with the tyres.

"Some small problems during the day meant that we were not on track when it was at its best, but overall I am very happy with progress."

The Barcelona test will continue tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:31.569 54 2. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:31.931 42 3. Fisichella Jordan-Ford (B) 1:32.485 25 4. Alonso Renault (M) 1:32.693 23 5. Firman Jordan-Ford (B) 1:32.716 52 6. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:33.062 48 7. Panis Toyota (M) 1:34.017 39 8. Button BAR-Honda (B) 1:34.148 31 9. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:34.189 34 10. Pizzonia Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:35.029 46 11. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:38.810 52 12. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:39.766 27 13. McNish Renault (M) 1:54.056 13 14. Trulli Renault (M) no time 1 All Timing Unofficial

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