JPM fastest at an overcast Silverstone

By Karl King
April 26 2006

Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest man on track at an overcast Silverstone test on Tuesday. Juan Pablo focused on Michelin work during the day, and as there were showers in the morning, a team press release said there would be no point in him going out as the track was not suitable for intermediate or wet tyres.

Juan Pablo, who was using the latest evolution of the Mercedes Benz V8, pipped Jenson Button to the top spot at his home track, in a series of short runs. The Columbian's time was a 1m21.076.

The only other people to set a time under 1m22s were the Renaults of Heikki Kovalainen and Fernando Alonso respectively, although Honda's Anthony Davidson was very close.

Pedro de la Rosa was also in action for McLaren, although only thirteenth on the timesheets. The Spaniard's time was faster than that of only MF1 Racing tester Giorgio Mondini. Pedro was running a different programme to Juan Pablo and was actually able to go out on track in the morning.

Driver	Constructor	Time	Laps
Juan Pablo Montoya	Team McLaren Mercedes	1m21.076	41
Jenson Button	Honda Racing	1m21.133	59
Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1m21.234	87
Fernando Alonso	Renault	1m21.311	32
Anthony Davidson	Honda Racing	1m22.080	68
Christian Klien	Red Bull Racing	1m22.219	30
Alex Wurz	Williams F1	1m22.221	92
Nico Rosberg	Williams F1	1m22.240	108
Jacques Villeneuve	BMW Sauber	1m22.265	58
David Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	1m22.642	21
Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1m22.711	57
Neel Jani	Toro Rosso	1m23.351	85
Pedro de la Rosa	Team McLaren Mercedes	1m23.527	38
Giorgio Mondini	MF1 Racing	1m24.469	23