Paffett and de la Rosa test in Paul Ricard

By Karl King
March 23 2006

Team McLaren Mercedes were joined by Renault, BMW and Toyota at their test in Paul Ricard on Wednesday. Renault set the pace with Heikki Kovalainen over 4 tenths faster than nearest rival Pedro de la Rosa.

Pedro, who was also at the test on Tuesday, focused on putting miles on the MP4-21 which was running with some development components which are schedueled to make their first race appearance in Australia next weekend.

The Spaniard covered 645km over a series of short-medium length runs.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica separated the McLaren drivers in the timesheets, his time almost a second faster than McLaren's Gary Paffett, who was driving a MP4-20 chassis fitted with a restricted Mercedes V10.

Gary was schedueled to begin his test on Tuesday, but remained garage-bound due to bad weather, however on track today he began tyre selection work for Austraila and San Marino.

The Toyota's brought up the rear of the timesheets, Ralf Schumacher setting only 40 laps blighted by electronic problems.

Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett will continue testing at Paul Ricard on Thursday and Friday.