WilliamsF1 continues Valencia Test

The days test would be run under sunshine with temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius. At the end of the day Juan Pablo would have set the third fastest time, while Gene was sixth. Pantano and Liuzzi would finish fifth and eighth respectively. The team would again spend the day evaluating development parts for the FW25 as well as continuing the testing of the 2003 P83 BMW engine. For Juan Pablo he continued setup work on his car, including tyre testing for Michelin with different tyres were being tested. He would complete sixty seven laps with his thirty third been the fastest of the day. Juan Pablo would improve his best time of the previous day.

For Pantano and Liuzzi it would seem that Pantano has the edge with the Italian been set a time almost a second of Liuzzi. Pantano would also end up only nine thousands of a second behind the experienced Renault team driver Jarno Trulli. Having said this one should take in account the fact that Pantano completed fifty three laps while Liuzzi did only twenty eight.

With the possibility of a position as test driver with the WilliamsF1 team the next few days are likely to see fierce competition between the two drivers.

For test driver Marc Gene his day focused solely on engine and gearbox testing. he would complete fifty nine laps with the new units without any problems which is a good sign at these early stages. The team would complete a total of 207 laps completed the team almost did 830 test kilometres.

WilliamsF1 Test Team Manager said: "Today was the second day into our winter testing program, with Juan Pablo Montoya concentrating on brake and tyre development, while Marc Gené was running with the new P83 engine. Giorgio Pantano after completing three useful sessions for the team handed the car over to Vitantonio Liuzzi for the afternoon session, and Liuzzi will continue working tomorrow."

Joining the WilliamsF1 team again were McLaren, and it would be this team who would set the pace with Kimi Raikkonen leading the times in his McLaren Mercedes MP4-17D, just ahead of regular McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz. Both McLaren drivers were well ahead of Juan Pablo's fastest time set yesterday.

Jarno Trulli was fourth fastest in his development Renault chassis, but he was 1.5s off the ultimate pace set by the flying Finn Raikkonen. Nick Heidfeld was once again the sole representative for Sauber Petronas, taking the seventh fastest time in the C21 despite a spin.

"There was not any damage to the car after my spin and we were able to continue the program and have another productive day to continue gathering data to be ready for next season,” Heidfeld stated.

Minardi concluded their two-day test with Sergey Zlobin continuing his Formula One familiarisation programme. The Russian was today joined by Matteo Bobbi.

Driver Team Engine Chassis Tyre Time Laps

1 K Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes MP4/17D M 1:12.335 66
2 A Wurz McLaren Mercedes MP4/17D M 1:12.430 29
3 J P Montoya Williams BMW FW24 M 1:12.912 66
4 J Trulli Renault Renault R202B M 1:13.881 31
5 G Pantano Williams BMW FW24 M 1:13.898 54
6 M Gene Williams BMW FW24 M 1:14.164 60
7 N Heidfeld Sauber Petronas C21 B 1:14.336 46
8 V Liuzzi Williams BMW FW24 M 1:14.829 29
9 M Bobbi Minardi European PS01B M 1:16.645 21
10 S Zlobin Minardi European PS01B M 1:19.759 29