15/09/2005
NEWS STORY
 |
Red Bull's Christian Klien topped the time sheets on the third, and final, day of testing at Silverstone.
The Austrian, who was partnered by house-mate Tonio Liuzzi, completed 52 laps, posting a best time almost half-a-second faster than WilliamsF1's Antonio Pizzonia, who was second quickest.
There was little action in the morning due to the heavy rain, but in the afternoon, as the rain stopped and the track began to dry, the drivers made full use of the improving conditions.
As he looks ahead to next week's Brazilian GP, where he should deputize for Nick Heidfeld, Antonio Pizzonia finished second quickest, as he and teammate, Nico Rosberg, tried full wets and intermediates. They also practiced pit stops and made a number of practice starts.
"Most of the day was spent testing intermediate tyres and working through some comparisons for Michelin," said Sam Michael, "but also on traction control and starts. Rain hampered this morning's session but, towards the end of the day, the track finally dried out which enabled us to finalise some work on Suzuka tyre compounds."
Ralf Schumacher and Olivier Panis were on duty for Toyota, the Frenchman continuing with the TF105B. In the afternoon, as conditions improved, the German ran a number of laps in the B-spec car, however the planned back-to-back test wasn't possible because of the conditions.
"We've had a very successful test with the TF105B, which features a different front suspension from the TF105," said mike Gascoyne. "We had a problem with the power steering at the previous test, but here at Silverstone we were able to eradicate it. That meant we were able to get on and evaluate the car properly. We initially planned to test the car for only one day but we lengthened that to the entire test, and the results were very positive."
"We had a really positive week of work on the B car," added Panis. "It was a big step forward compared to the last test (Monza), when we had some technical problems. This time things worked much better so it is a big step in the right direction.
Asked how the car felt, he replied: "It felt really good everywhere. It was good in both low and high-speed corners, it seemed to have less understeer than the TF105 and it had more front grip in general. Unfortunately the weather was too bad to do much work today so I just did some wet launches. But I'm sure this test will be useful for our work for next year."
Sakon Yamamoto completed 69 laps in the Jordan, but admits that he will need to work on his fitness in order to be ready for next month's Japanese GP, when he will drive the third car in Friday free practice.
To check out our picture gallery, click here