WilliamsF1 Jerez test continues ....

On a bright and sunny but windy day the BMW WilliamsF1 team continued their testing at Jerez. Both Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gené were present at the circuit as the team continued their development work for the 2004 season.

The team was keen to get back on track with their test schedule after having to cope with the heavy rain on Tuesday. The conditions on this day made it such that the drivers were able to work through their test programme.

The day did see the track damp in the morning but once it dried out the drivers were able to test their FW25's without concern over the track conditions. Neither Juan Pablo or Marc were to experience any problems. Both drivers were able to cover an impressive number of laps during the day.

For Juan Pablo his day would see him focus on chassis setup work and tyre testing. He would finish the day with a best lap time of 1m:18.178, completing seventy four laps.

For test driver Marc Gené he would complete a race simulation, covering one hundred and five laps. The team was looking at reliability checks as the Spaniard lapped the circuit. marc would set a best lap time of 1m:19.594, which saw him tenth fastest.

McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa set the fastest lap of the day, followed by Renault’s Fernando Alonso.

WilliamsF1 Chief Operations Engineer Sam Michael said of the days testing: "The circuit started off damp but was dry by the afternoon. Both cars completed some intermediate tyre testing in the morning for Michelin. Marc did long runs to test the reliability of the new engine and gearbox, while Juan spent the day doing tyre testing and set up work. Although the day was interrupted with quite a few red flags we had no mechanical problems all day, an encouraging sign at this early stage."

Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gené will test again tomorrow. They will be joined by the Asian Formula BMW champion China's Ho-pin Tung who will be given the opportunity of running in an FW24.

Pos Driver Team Engine Time Laps

1. P de la Rosa McLaren Mercedes 1:17.101 63 / 68
2. F Alonso Renault 1:17.808 53 / 93
3. J P Montoya WilliamsF1 BMW 1:18.178 70 / 74
4. R Barrichello Ferrari 1:18.966 41 / 59
5. M Webber Jaguar Cosworth 1:19.004 66 / 83
6. L Badoer Ferrari 1:19.218 64 / 73
7. A Wurz McLaren Mercedes 1:19.447 41 / 44
8. O Panis Toyota 1:19.567 57 / 58
9. M Gené WilliamsF1 BMW 1:19.594 81 / 105
10. C Klien Jaguar Cosworth 1:19.783 89 / 90
11. S Motoyama Renault 1:19.985 45 / 63
12. F Massa Sauber 1:21.132 62 / 85
13. B Wirdheim BAR. Honda 1:21.322 56 / 78
14. C da Matta Toyota 1:21.470 25 / 77