Barcelona test - day three: 4 February.

Renault's Fernando Alonso put the new R24 top today [Wednesday] at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, the Spaniard posting a best of 1 minute 14.665 seconds.

Alonso, who completed 104 laps in total, was nearly a second slower than unofficial lap record, set yesterday by Takuma Sato in the BAR-Honda 'concept car' - a 1m 13.797s.

Robert Wilkins_1

04 Feb 2004

Renault's Fernando Alonso put the new R24 top today [Wednesday] at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, the Spaniard posting a best of 1 minute 14.665 seconds.

Alonso, who completed 104 laps in total, was nearly a second slower than unofficial lap record, set yesterday by Takuma Sato in the BAR-Honda 'concept car' - a 1m 13.797s.

Despite this though the Hungarian GP winner was pleased with his day's work, which included a full race distance simulation in the morning, and front tyre evaluations in the afternoon.

"We had another good day," he commented, "I am feeling more and more confident in the car, and it is gradually becoming much better to drive. It was encouraging to once again complete a race distance without any problems this morning. There is still room to improve, but we are definitely moving in the right direction."

Ralf Schumacher meanwhile was second quickest for the BMW WilliamsF1 team, with third driver, Marc Gene fourth and Juan Pablo Montoya eighth.

Sam Michael, chief operations engineer at WilliamsF1, told the teams' official website: "Today Juan Pablo joined the test and practised pitstops all day with the race team crew doing tyre changes and re-fuelling. Ralf spent his last day at the test continuing set-up work and systems runs.

"Marc was driving the FW25 today, doing tyre testing for Michelin and working on the car's electronic systems. He is also finished for this test. Juan Pablo and Antonio Pizzonia will drive the two FW26s for the remainder of the test while Nelson Piquet will drive the FW25 tomorrow."

Jenson Button was third, to keep BAR-Honda at the right end of the times. The Brit was again running in the new 006, his best a 1m 14.699s. Team-mate Takuma Sato was eleventh, and like yesterday when he set the unofficial lap record, he ran in the BAR 'concept car'.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello completed the top five, with Franck Montagny sixth and Cristiano da Matta seventh. Barrichello was joined by Luca Badoer today, as the Scuderia ran two F2003-GA's, both working on a continuation of the tyre test programme which ran over the past two days. At the end of the session, the two cars had completed a total of 159 laps, Badoer six tenths slower, and ninth overall.

Of the rest, Olivier Panis rounded off the top ten with the McLaren trio again seemingly disappointing in 12th, 13th and 14th - Kimi Raikkonen quickest of the three MP4-19's, his best a 1m 16.083s.

Slowest of the runners was Felipe Massa, the Brazilian completed only six laps though, after crashing heavily this morning [see separate stories]. Although he was taken to hospital by helicopter, he was not severely injured, and is expected to be released tomorrow, kept in tonight for 'observation'. Following the accident, Team Sauber Petraons abandoned the test, initially blaming a front suspension problem for the incident.

Testing continues tomorrow [Thursday].

Leading times (4 February) - Barcelona:

1. Fernando Alonso Renault-Renault 1m 14.665s 104 laps M
2. Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1m 14.679s 51 laps M
3. Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1m 14.699s 115 laps M
4. Marc Gene Williams-BMW 1m 14.998s 65 laps M#
5. Rubens Barrichello Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 15.063s 84 laps B#
6. Franck Montagny Renault-Renault 1m 15.289s 82 laps M#
7. Cristiano da Matta Toyota-Toyota 1m 15.446s 88 laps M
8. Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1m 15.590s 41 laps M
9. Luca Badoer Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 15.649s 75 laps B#
10. Olivier Panis Toyota-Toyota 1m 15.686s 82 laps M
11. Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1m 15.724s 64 laps M
12. Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes 1m 16.083s 91 laps M
13. Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1m 16.438s 39 laps M
14. David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1m 16.574s 39 laps M
15. Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1m 16.583s 6 laps B