Williams to take second look at Heidfeld.

Nick Heidfeld's pace on his first two days of running with the Williams-BMW team appear to have increased his chances of being included in next year's race line-up, after the team confirmed that it would inviting him back for a second run next week.

The German was originally slated to drive for the team on 9 December but, following BAR's decision to prevent Anthony Davidson from running with Williams this week, Heidfeld's chance to impress was brought forward. Now, having set quick times during testing in Spain, the former Jordan, Sauber and Prost driver has been told that he will also been in the driving seat on his original date as Williams and BMW take the opportunity to take a second look at him.

"I'm really happy with the two days I've had in the car," Heidfeld said at the end of his first test with the team, "The FW26 is a very nice car to drive, and I was getting more familiar with it lap by lap. I think I would have benefited from some more track time - and better weather - to get a proper feel of how the car handles in the dry but, overall, it's been a very satisfying test."

Heidfeld had been thought most likely to fill the team's testing vacancy in 2005, with Antonio Pizzonia elevated to the race team alongside the already-confirmed Mark Webber, but developments at Jerez have evidently given Williams personnel cause to rethink their options.

"Nick will run again in the time he was promised next week," a team spokesman told Reuters

Pizzonia and Webber are also due to continue testing next week, in what will be the team's final outing before the Christmas and New Year break. The pair, who partnered each other for half a season at Jaguar in 2003, joined Heidfeld for the three-day test at Jerez this week, with each driver running in an uprated FW26.

Despite unfavourable weather conditions, preventing a lot of dry running, the trio still managed to bank a considerable amount of track time and provided the engineers with sufficient data to measure the success of the car's development parts. Combined, the drivers covered a distance of 2241km over the three days, while Webber and Pizzonia recorded the two quickest times of the test to the point of Williams' departure.

"After a rather troublesome test in Barcelona last week, we made good progress here," test team manager Tim Newton revealed, "Mark, Antonio and Nick all did a good job with the interim cars and, despite some rather inclement weather, all three recorded impressive mileage.

"On his first outing with the team, Nick settled in well and gave us some productive feedback, and credit must be given to everyone - both at the factory and at the track -
who have worked hard over the past week to rectify the teething problems encountered in Barcelona."