Barcelona test - day three: 7 April.

After the appointment of Gil de Ferran as sporting director yesterday, there was further good news for the BAR team on Thursday as Jenson Button broke the unofficial lap record at Catalunya to head the third day of testing in Spain.

Button's quickest lap of 1min 13.552secs, set late on his second day of running for BAR in Barcelona, eclipsed the unofficial record held by team-mate Takuma Sato and was some seven-tenths of a second ahead of Italian Jarno Trulli, who was second on the day.

Button spent the morning session continuing the aerodynamic evaluation begun on Wednesday, as well as beginning a suspension test, before concentrating on fine-tuning the car in the afternoon.

Sato joined the BAR test effort during the morning session, and spent the early part of the day completing set-up runs. With a good balance achieved, he then ran through a tyre evaluation, setting the fastest time of the morning.

The Japanese driver spent the afternoon continuing his tyre evaluation with longer runs.

Test driver Enrique Bernoldi took over from Taku for the last hour-and-a-half of the afternoon, working mainly on the set-up of the car over 21 laps.

Sato narrowly missed out on making it a BAR one-two at the top if the times, but secured third place, while the lead McLaren of Alex Wurz finished the day in fourth.

Wurz focused on testing tyres behind the wheel of the MP4-19B, and set a fastest time of 1min 14.391secs despite losing an hour of running when the car developed a hydraulic leak.

"Today I was testing in the MP4-19B concentrating on Michelin tyre testing for the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix," he said. "I am looking forward to the final day of testing tomorrow."

Rubens Barrichello gave the new Ferrari F2005 its Barcelona debut and set the fifth quickest time of the day as the Scuderia completed its third day of running. The Brazilian worked on developing the Bridgestone tyres and on fine-tuning the set-up of the new car, completing 116 laps without any major problems.

Luca Badoer took over from Marc Gene in the F2004M and continued the tyre development work undertaken by Gene on the opening two days of the test - setting the seventh quickest time in the process. Badoer continues testing tomorrow, with Michael Schumacher taking to the track in the F2005 in place of Barrichello.

Splitting the two Ferraris, Fernando Alonso brought three days of testing for current championship leaders Renault to a close with the sixth fastest time.

While the day passed without trouble for the young Spaniard, team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella suffered an accident early in the afternoon which forced him to bring his test to an early finish. Having completed just over half the number of laps of his team-mate, Fisichella had to settle for the twelfth fastest time.

"Overall, we have completed a very successful week's work in Barcelona," chief engineer Christian Silk said at the end of the day. "The team made a big effort to bring our programme forward, and we have had three dry, productive days' running. Fernando has experienced few problems and completed plenty of miles, working on promising tyre developments and exploring the car's set-up. Giancarlo's week has been more disrupted, but he will drive again next week which will allow him to get more seat time in the car.

"Overall, we have found good set-up directions for the race here in Barcelona, but also for the next Grand Prix in Imola, and we continue to make good progress in our understanding of the car."

Ricardo Zonta completed another 144 laps for Toyota and set the eighth quickest time, with Nick Heidfeld following Kimi Raikkonen as the lead Williams driver in tenth.

Mark Webber also joined Heidfeld and Antonio Pizzonia for the second day of the Williams test, but the Australian had to settle for the 14th best time, one place behind Pizzonia.

Raikkonen was replacing Pedro de la Rosa in the second McLaren for his first day of running and set the ninth quickest time behind the wheel of the MP4-20 before he was forced to end the day early with a slipping clutch.

"This morning I completed my planned programme," he said, "and as well as testing the option Michelin tyre for Spain continued the set up development work which Pedro started yesterday."

David Coulthard also took to the track for the second day of the Red Bull Racing test as the teams lone driver, with the eleventh best time, while Felipe Massa took over from Jacques Villeneuve as Sauber continued its three day test, the Brazilian completing 83 laps but setting only the 15th quickest time.

"In the morning we first adapted the car's set-up to Felipe's driving style," race engineer Giampaolo Dall'Ara said. "We then mainly concentrated on evaluating mechanical development parts as well as new aerodynamic components. At the end of the test day we did a long-run with decent pace as part of our race preparation.

"Overall, we could feel an improvement today, but still need more understanding to meet our goals."

Having taken over from Villeneuve a day early [see separate story], Massa will complete the test for Sauber tomorrow.

BAR test driver Enrique Bernoldi completed the 16 runners having only managed 18 laps.

Testing continues tomorrow [Friday], although the circuit will fall silent at 10am to observe a minutes silence in memory of Pope John Paul II, whose funeral takes place in Rome.

Leading times (7 April) - Barcelona:

1. Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1min 13.552secssecs 139 laps
2. Jarno Trulli Toyota-Toyota 1min 14.231secs 111 laps
3. Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1min 114.247secs 122 laps
4. Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1min 14.391secs 102 laps
5. Rubens Barrichello Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 14.645secs 116 laps #
6. Fernando Alonso Renault-Renault 1min 14.670secs 129 laps
7. Luca Badoer Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 14.761secs 127 laps #
8. Ricardo Zonta Toyota-Toyota 1min 14.826secs 144 laps
9. Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 14.929secs 76 laps
10. Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1min 14.932secs 95 laps
11. David Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth 1min 14.957secs 87 laps
12. Giancarlo Fisichella Renault-Renault 1min 15.018secs 67 laps
13. Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW 1min 15.141secs 56 laps
14. Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1min 16.050secs 51 laps
15. Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1min 16.942secs 83 laps
16. Enrique Bernoldi BAR-Honda 1min 17.243secs 18 laps

[# denotes Bridgestone tyres, all others on Michelin; * denotes 2004 car]

Track conditions: Good.

All times unofficial - courtesy of the Circuit de Catalunya website.

Comparative lap times:

Spanish GP 2004:

Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1min 17.450secs Pole position: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1min 15.022secs