Valencia day 1 - Overview

As it had rained over the night, the circuit was wet enough for the teams to perform wet tyre testing. While however at Williams they are convinced that Bridgestone has the better wet weather tyre, both Honda cars were faster than anyone else today. While all teams were running V8 engines, it is strange that McLaren was not as Paffett drove around an MP4-20.

Overnight rain and cold track temperatures in Valencia meant that both Rubens Barrichello and Anthony Davidson ran on wet tyres this morning. Both drivers began with short set-up runs before practicing qualifying procedures to adapt to the new 2006 qualifying format. The drivers spent the afternoon session completing further set-up work, running on intermediate tyres as the track dried out. The test programme was completed with a second qualifying practice at the end of the day.

Both drivers completed 62 laps in total today, with Rubens setting the fastest time – a 01:19.384 – and Anthony setting the second fastest time – a 01:20.001. Jenson Button will take over from Anthony in chassis RA106-02 for the second day of the test tomorrow.

NB: All drivers are in 2006 cars except Rosberg (interim Williams) and Paffett (V10 McLaren).

“Considering the circuit was wet throughout the day, we completed a good programme on both the FW28 and FW27C. Even with its tight packaging around the exhaust and cooling systems, the FW28 has not experienced any issues with burning or cooling, which is great. Mark drove the FW28 and completed 340kms on wet tyres with some long runs to check heat rejection numbers for the new car. Nico drove the FW27C and completed 316kms undergoing wet tyre testing for Bridgestone. It was evident from the lap times during the day that Bridgestone have an advantage in wet conditions. We should get some dry weather running tomorrow which will allow us to continue our programme."

Today also marked the first test of Valentino Rossi on an official race circuit in a test with other cars. The Italian however quickly spun his F2004 and got stuck in the gravel trap. He will be back behind the wheel on wednesday.

1 R. Barrichello 01:19.384 V8
2 A. Davidson 01:20.001 V8
3 M. Schumacher 01:20.364 V8
4 K. Raikkonen 01:21.194 V8
5 M. Webber 01:22.388 V8
6 C. Klien 01:22.598 V8
7 G. Paffett 01:23.842 V10
8 N. Rosberg 01:23.948 V8