Kyalami Test - Day Five: 12 February.

The bad weather finally abated at Kyalami to allow both Williams and British American Racing the chance to put in some decent testing miles on Saturday.


Having been forced to kick their heels for another couple of days, the two Williams drivers were keen to get back into action yesterday, and eventually annexed the top two spots as BAR's Ricardo Zonta dropped from first to third overnight.


Having had to play second fiddle to team-mate Ralf Schumacher whenever the cars had been on the track in recent days, Britain's Jenson Button finally got the better of the German to emerge with fastest time of the day. The 20-year old recorded the quickest lap of the test so far, with a 1min 24.784secs, as he completed 57 laps with the new FW22-BMW.


Schumacher was not far behind, however, clocking a best time just two-tenths adrift of his young partner, as the Williams pairing edged closer to the ultimate pace set by the German at last season's corresponding test. The entire Grove team seemed more at ease with the car's performance, having appeared to have conquered the problems which beset it in Spain recently.


Whether this has anything to do with the presence in South Africa of technical director Patrick Head in uncertain, but the team may have had to discover what life would have been like without its engineering front man as he wandered in front of Zonta's BAR as it came down the pit-lane. Obviously ensconced in one of his technical daydreams, Head was lucky to avoid becoming the third man to be collected by the unfortunate Brazilian in two days.


The pit-lane incident was about the only problem on Zonta's mind, however, as the BAR 002 again ran a long distance without any major hitch. This time last year, the team was wondering whether it would complete a race, but so far the new car appears to be better on the reliability front.


Both teams plan to continue the test into next week, with race distances planned in both camps.



Leading performances (12 February):


Jenson Button Williams-BMW 1min 24.784secs 57 laps

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1min 24.989secs 48 laps

Ricardo Zonta BAR-Honda 1min 25.012secs 92 laps