New BAR shatters Barcelona lap record!

Shattering!
By Phil Huff (02/02/2004)
February 2 2004

The new Lucky Strike BAR Honda 006, launched yesterday at Barcelona, has shattered the tracks lap record on its first full day of running.

Early this morning Jenson Button set a lap time of 1:13.867, nearly a second quicker than the previous record, itself set by Button in the BAR Concept in January.

It's no surprise that Jenson was on a low fuel run, a test run to confirm performance expectations, but the sheer pace of the new car will put a smile on everybody's face.

The new car is targeting podium finishes, with Jenson keen to take his first win, too. Yesterday's shakedown runs proved the stability of the car and, with Honda pronouncing the new engine more powerful than the old, it looks like it's just going to be reliability problems that could stop that from happening.

Testing continues until Wednesday.