Wurz continues to set pace

McLaren test driver Alex Wurz continued his fine form as he set the fastest time once again in testing on day two in Valencia.

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The Austrian had set the pace yesterday across the Spanish circuit with a time of 1 minute 9.386 seconds but bettered himself on Wednesday as he clocked a time of 1min 9.203secs in his Mercedes-powered car.

Wurz was again behind the wheel of McLaren’s old car but after 131 laps of the Ricardo Tormo circuit he managed to beat the Renaults of Spanish driver Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella – who were out in the new R25 challenger which was officially unveiled in Monaco on Tuesday.

Williams’ Nick Heidfeld, who was named as the team’s second driver for 2005 on Monday, was fourth fastest with a time of 1:10.354, beating team-mate Mark Webber, who finished sixth behind BAR’s Takumo Sato.

Kimi Raikkonen finished up seventh in the new McLaren, ahead of Toyota duo Olivier Panis’ and Ralf Schumacher.

Rubens Barrichello was 10th fastest in the Ferrari with which the team plan to start the season in.

The Brazilian finished ahead of BAR test driver Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene in the other Ferrari.

British driver James Rossiter and South African Alan van der Merwe were out testing BAR’s 2004 car – the pair ended up 13th and 14th respectively.

Testing is set to continue tomorrow for the third and final day.