Paul Ricard test - day three: 22 May.

Juan Pablo Montoya and David Coulthard shared the honours on the third day of action at the Paul Ricard high-tech test track, recording identical fastest times on another full day of dry running for Michelin.

The Colombian and his Scottish rival both set times of 1min 10.815secs around the 4.157km Track 12B at the Bagnoles venue, although Coulthard went on to complete a mammoth 120 laps in the course of his day's work.

It was the third day at Ricard for Toyota, Williams and McLaren, and second and last day for Renault, but much of the attention was again taken by the continuing introduction of the new McLaren-Mercedes MP4-18, which was once more entrusted to test driver Alex Wurz as Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen concentrated on honing the MP4-17D for Monaco.

The Austrian completed a further ten laps as he put the new car through its paces, but again propped up the timesheet despite shaving two seconds from the car's previous best. Once again, little should be read into the times - and the gap to the session leaders - as McLaren continued to run basic systems checks on the MP4-18 to ensure that its was working as intended.

Without the wind of earlier in the week, and with sunshine to warm proceedings, it proved to be an ideal day for real testing, with almost all of the drivers present completing a high number of laps.

While Montoya covered a relatively meagre 71 tours - only Wurz travelled a lesser distance - four of the other five participants racked up over 100. The session high went to Allan McNish, who contributed a further 156 laps to his two-day total of 252 - a mammoth 1047km in all - before the French marque packed up and headed back to its Enstone base. McNish worked through the final stages of a tyre development programme for Michelin as well as further evaluation of the team's new aero package, leaving technical director Mike Gascoyne happy with progress.

Toyota, Williams and McLaren all also concentrated on their preparations for Monaco, with Cristiano da Matta replacing Olivier Panis at the former and covering 104 laps of the team's 'home' circuit. Marc Gene partnered Montoya in the Williams garage, setting the fourth fastest time of the day at 1min 12.082secs to lie six-tenths shy of Raikkonen's best effort. The Finn, the only other driver not to complete a ton of laps, recorded a best time almost exactly between his team-mate and the two Williams drivers.

McLaren, Williams and Toyota are due to round up their test tomorrow with Pedro de la Rosa and Alexander Wurz, Montoya and Gene and Ricardo Zonta respectively. Renault, having completed their allocation of 'in-season' test days for the week, will not join them.

Leading times (22 May) - Paul Ricard:

1. Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1min 10.815secs 71 laps
2. David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1min 10.815secs 120 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 11.435secs 93 laps
4. Marc Gene Williams-BMW 1min 12.082secs 106 laps
5. Cristiano da Matta Toyota-Toyota 1min 12.320secs 104 laps
6. Allan McNish Renault-Renault 1min 12.427secs 156 laps
7. Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes* 1min 14.620secs 10 laps

[* denotes new MP4-18; all cars on Michelin tyres]

Weather conditions: Sunny and dry.