Williams Still on Top at Valencia - Day Three

The Williams team continued to dominate testing at the Valencia circuit, where German Ralf Schumacher topped the timesheets on the third day.

Schumacher joined the session today, replacing Brazilian test driver Antonio Pizzonia - fastest on Tuesday - and joining Spaniard Marc Gene, who set the quickest time on Wednesday. The German was nearly a whole second quicker than Gene, as the tester continued with his hard work ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Gene, who has been in action since Tuesday, has completed a total of nearly 1,000 kilometres -230 laps - during the first three days of work.

The Spaniard was third quickest behind the Jordan of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who carried out the Silverstone-squad's testing duties alone while teammate Takuma Sato recovers from his heavy shunt at the Austrian Grand Prix last Sunday.

Jenson Button took over from teammate Jarno Trulli at the wheel of the Renault, the Briton setting the fourth fastest time, two places ahead of test driver Fernando Alonso, who was the slowest man in today's session behind Frenchman Olivier Panis.

"We had a useful day in Valencia," said Renault's technical director Mike Gascoyne. "In spite of the engine failure, Jenson worked well with a view to Monaco, while Fernando continued to make progress with the new traction control system."

The British American Racing driver, who joined the session today after replacing Jacques Villeneuve, caused one of the incidents of the day, his car breaking down on the final turn of the Spanish circuit. Gene caused the other red flag of the day when his car stopped on the track.

Testing at Valencia continues on Friday.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.592 79 2. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 1:11.406 84 3. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.411 49 4. Button Renault (M) 1:11.465 62 5. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 1:12.448 54 6. Alonso Renault (M) 1:13.095 63 All Timing Unofficial

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