Jaguar R4 shatters Valencia lap record!
Antonio Pizzonia broke Juan-Pablo Montoya’s lap record at Valencia on Friday during the final stint at the Ricardo Tormo layout, the Jaguar rookie setting a 1:10.08 in the R4.
Pizzonia, formerly the Williams tester, completed only 25 laps but decided to gun for a top time on a light fuel load and finished over a second faster than Montoya in the Williams.
‘The car was getting better at Barcelona last week, and we've now made a further step forward,’ Pizzonia reported. ‘The balance is a lot better now. Hopefully next week we'll have two cars and we can do some long runs and race simulations.’
It was a promising sign for Jaguar but rapid one-off times during the winter are not uncommon, especially as the start of the season nears.
Montoya covered 97 laps in the FW25, working on a tyre test and continuing evaluations of the new car.
‘We have had a productive week testing with some good improvements to the aerodynamics; we also did some endurance running for reliability checks on the new car,’ commented Sam Michael, Chief Williams engineer. ‘We also did tyre testing for Michelin.’
Jacques Villeneuve took over from Jenson Button on Friday in the BAR 005 and completed 75 laps whilst working on a tyre programme, brake development and engine solutions for Honda. It was a good day until a gearbox problem hit in the afternoon.
‘We had a good test today,’ Villeneuve said. ‘Our work concentrated mainly on testing the tyres which we will use for the Australian Grand Prix. The car is quick and I was able to get quite a few good laps in. I tested the new rear wing for the first time today.
‘We had it at our last test in Barcelona but I didn't have the chance to try it then. It seems to be competitive. Unfortunately we still have too many mechanical problems though. I have also been working with the
HANS device today, which is a little bit difficult but we've got to get on with using it!’
In fourth position was Marc Gene who focussed on aerodynamic testing and notched up 42 laps while Ralf Schumacher completed a race simulation in the third Williams.
1. Antonio Pizzonia (Jaguar Racing) 1m10.08s(25)
2. Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) 1m11.18s(97)
3. Jacques Villeneuve (BAR) B 1m11.32s(75)
4. Marc Gene (Williams) 1m11.89s(42)
5. Ralf Schumacher (Williams) 1m12.38s(88)
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