Sato cheers up BAR by topping testing times

By Phil Huff
April 28 2005

In a welcome piece of good news, Takuma Sato topped the time sheets as Lucky Strike BAR Honda start testing in Ferrari's own back yard.

Takuma Sato's 1:20.647 was enough to outpace team mate Anthony Davidson by just one hundredth of a second in his BAR Honda 007. Running at Mugello, Italy, the team finished ahead of the two Ferrari F2005's driven by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, although only by one tenth of a second.

Also present at the test were Minardi, who suffered an embarrassing incident when Christijan Albers, driving the brand new PS05, collided with test driver Chanoch Nissany.

Pos	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	Sato	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:20.647	-.---
2	Davidson	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:20.657	0.010
3	Barrichello	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2005	B	1:20.764	0.117
4	M Schumacher	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2005	B	1:20.899	0.252
5	Friesacher	Minardi	Cosworth	PS05	B	1:25.623	4.976
6	Albers	Minardi	Cosworth	PS05	B	1:27.401	6.754
7	Nissany	Minardi	Cosworth	PS04B	B	1:39.519	18.872