Wurz Flies at Valencia

McLaren tester Alexander Wurz set a blistering pace on the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit in southern Spain.

The Austrian posted a quickest time of 1:09.506 to finish over 1.5 seconds ahead of the closest of his rivals, Frenchman Franck Montagny in the Renault. Wurz was the only driver who lapped in less than 70 seconds.

Fernando Alonso was back behind the wheel of his Renault for the first time since the end of last season, but the Spaniard had a very troubled return to work, spinning off track after just two laps due to a problem with his car and then losing his engine after a couple of corners.

In the afternoon the Renault driver was hit by a problem with his gearbox and as a consequence he only covered 55 laps while his teammate Montagny completed a massive 157 on his way to the second quickest time of the day.

"I really wanted to get back in the car," said Alonso at the end of the day. "I'm the last driver to join but I hope it pays off at the end of the season."

BAR driver Jenson Button was third fastest in the new 007 car, while Japanese teammate Takuma Sato finished behind him in the 2005-spec 006 machine.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve completed his two days of work for the Sauber team, covering a total of 107 laps but finishing at the bottom of the times.

"Basically the programme today covered the same aspects like yesterday and we kept on working on the set-up of the C24," said Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Sauber's race engineer. "Because the car has improved quite significantly we were able to start already with the in-depth Michelin tyre assessments which were originally scheduled for tomorrow.

"It helped that it was not as windy as yesterday, so we could also run some aerodynamic tests in the morning. In the afternoon we had to change the engine as it reached its maximum mileage."

Testing at Valencia ends tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Wurz McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:09.506 142 2. Montagny Renault (M) 1:11.178 157 3. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:11.267 125 4. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:11.396 131 5. Alonso Renault (M) 1:11.463 55 6. Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:12.298 107 All Timing Unofficial

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