Webber third fastest on Day Three at Jerez


Mark Webber
By Andrew Hooper
February 10 2006

WilliamsF1 driver Mark Webber would finish third fastest on day three of the teams test at Jerez. Mark was joined by Nico Rosberg who would have to cope with some technical problems with his car as he went eighth fastest. It was on a day that Honda said that the Cosworth engine was ahead of theirs.

 
Jerez Test 09:02:200 Day Three
 

Day three of the WilliamsF1's Jerez test would see mark Webber and Nico Rosberg continue with teams development programme for the FW28.

At the end of the day Mark would finish in third position with a time of 1m:17.767.His time would be set using the standard gearbox rather than the seamless shift system. The team is still working on improving the reliability of the new gearbox.

Team-mate Nico Rosberg would finish in eighth, some eight tenths behind Mark. But again Nico's day would see him suffer from technical problems with his car in particular a problem with the cars steering rack.

But for WilliamsF1 Team Technical Director Sam Michael the testing so far showed that the team is making steady progress as they work towards in the opening race in Bahrain.

Michael said: “Today Mark and Nico continued tyre testing and set-up work on the FW28s. We had a problem with the steering rack hydraulics on Nico's car in the morning, which, unfortunately, delayed the programme while we changed it. Otherwise, we are making steady progress on reliability and set-up items. Tomorrow, Mark and Alex will be driving and will conclude the Jerez test.”

One encouraging piece of news for the WilliamsF1 team was the public comments from Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda's F1 Engineering Director, that engine manufacturer Cosworth was ahead of Honda in their engine development.

In an interview for autosport.com Nakamoto said: "At the moment Cosworth has done a good job and we are trailing behind them. We should be able to produce better engines than we have now.

"If we had the engine of that level (of Cosworth) in our car, then probably we will be able to beat Renault. But we have not, so we have got some work to do."

 
Pos Driver 	  Team 		  Best Time Total Laps
1   P de la Rosa  McLaren (M)	  1:17.451  123 *
2   G Fisichella  Renault (M)  	  1:17.479  76
3   M Webber	  WilliamsF1 (B)  1:17.767  104
4   J Button	  Honda (M)	  1:17.990  118
5   J Villeneuve  BMW Sauber (M)  1:18.179  111
6   N Heidfeld	  BMW Sauber (M)  1:18.278  63
7   H Kovalainen  Renault (M)  	  1:18.542  45
8   N Rosberg     WilliamsF1 (B)  1:18.843  60
9   K Raikkonen	  McLaren (M)  	  1:18.929  40
10  J Trulli	  Toyota B)  	  1:19.083  103
11  R.Schumacher  Toyota (B)   	  1:19.320  107
12  V Liuzzi	  Toro Rosso B)   1:19.394  79
13  C Albers	  MF1 Toyota (B)  1:20.685  90
14  T Monteiro	  MF1 Toyota (B)  1:20.922  63
 
* denotes restricted V10