Raikkonen takes over at Valencia

Once again it was a McLaren at the top of the test times at Valencia, but this time the MP4-20 of Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn set a best of 1:08.995 of the 13 drivers on track, while team tester Alex Wurz, in the MP4-19B, followed on, a second behind. "Today I completed 117 laps of the circuit," said Raikkonen. "There were no problems, and it was a very productive day's running."

Kimi Raikkonen tests the new McLaren Mercedes MP4-20.

Photo by DaimlerChrysler.

Jarno Trulli was the lead Toyota, third fastest, while teammate Ralf Schumacher was down in 12th. Fernando Alonso was the quicker of the two Renault race drivers, fourth, with Giancarlo Fisichella clocking seventh overall. Fisichella suffered a mechanical failure while the pair focused on experimental set ups and tyre work.

Takuma Sato led the trio of BARs on track in fifth; Jenson Button was 11th and Young Driver Programme pilot Adam Carroll rounded off the times in 13th. Despite early technical problems, Nick Heidfeld was again the quicker of the Williams pair, sixth, and teammate Mark Webber was ninth as they continued development of the FW27.

"We've put considerable mileage on the FW27 on our penultimate day at Valencia," said test team manager Tim Newton. "Mark spent the morning completing longer runs while carrying out systems checks, but his progress was sporadically interrupted by red flags."

"Nick suffered from technical problems which delayed his morning running but manage to catch up in the afternoon by clocking up 101 laps of tyre testing as well as performing aerodynamic evaluations."

Michael Schumacher joined Rubens Barrichello at work and clocked eighth fastest in the Ferrari F2004. He continued work on tyre development, Ferrari being the only Bridgestone team present. Barrichello was behind the wheel of the F2004M and was 10th, working on electronic set up.