Davidson fastest

Honda showed they were willing and able to take the fight to Ferrari and the Renault F1 team this weekend in Spain as their third driver Anthony Davidson set the fastest lap of the afternoon practice session. Davidson’s lap of 1:16.533 was three tenths of a second faster than the next quickest man, Red Bull’s Robert Doornbos.

Doornbos had an eventful session, spinning across the grass at one point, but still managed to outpace world champion Fernando Alonso. Alonso, who did not set a timed lap this morning will be happy to see his pace advantage over Michael Schumacher. The winner of the last two races could only manage the sixth quickest lap of the session, two tenths of a second back from Alonso.

Alex Wurz came in fourth for Williams, with Christian Klien fifth for Red Bull. Sixth was the aforementioned Schumacher with Giancarlo a fine seventh for the Renault F1 Team. In eighth and ninth were the Honda pair of Button and Barrichello, as Ralf Schumacher rounded out the top 10.

Despite talk of a comeback, McLaren are still nowhere near on the pace. Kimi Raikkonen could manage only 15th, while his team-mate was stuck in 18th place.

The challenge to the Renault / Ferrari battle of late seems to be coming from Honda. With Davidson at the top and Button and Barrichello in the hunt, the Alonso, Schumacher fight could get another combatant this weekend.