Valencia test - day four: 4 February [updated].

Ferrari team leader Michael Schumacher set the pace today [Friday] at Valencia in Spain.

The German, who was in last year's car, the F2004, posted a 1 minute 10.209 seconds, which was over a second off the top time of the week, recorded yesterday by McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen [a 1m 08.995s].

Schumacher spent the day working on tyre development for Bridgestone, while his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, who was running in the interim Ferrari, was third, having focused on set-up work and electronics.

BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button meanwhile split the two Ferrari's in second, on a 1m 10.599s, the Brit running in the new 007. He was joined on track by BAR test driver, Enrique Bernoldi, who took over from Takuma Sato, while Adam Carroll and Alan van der Merwe, both took turns in the 006, as part of BAR's 'Young Driver Development programme'.

Williams-BMW duo, Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber were fourth and sixth respectively, between them managing 179 laps. Over the four days, the Williams team completed over 700 laps of the Valencia circuit and having driven 378 laps, Heidfeld covered the highest mileage of any driver this week.

"We have just finished a weeks test in Valencia with the FW27," reflected Williams technical director, Sam Michael, "It's always good to get the first test of a new car underway to learn how the set-up works. Nick and Mark shared testing duties, checking systems, heat rejection, brake cooling and many other items that are necessary to benchmark with a totally new car. There was also plenty of tyre testing to do with Michelin.

"There were no major reliability problems with the FW27 and, as such, the daily mileage the drivers recorded was high. There is a lot of development work to do before Melbourne to ensure that we are in a competitive position and I've no doubt that 2005 will be a long, hard battle for the Championship with competition from all the teams."

The only other team in action was Toyota with Jarno Trulli, quickest, on a 1m 10.814s, the Italian fifth on the timesheets. He spent the day focusing on tyre work, while Ralf Schumacher, was also in action in the other TF105, over half a second slower.

"The car has been pretty reliable and it also seems to be quick and competitive," said Trulli at the end of today's running. "Our best times compared quite favourably with the others, but there are still some problems with consistency over longer runs. We still have three weeks to go before we leave for Melbourne so we will now investigate what's happening and we hope to resolve that as soon as possible."

Toyota test driver, Ricardo Zonta also ventured out on track in the TF104B, however he only completed 13 laps, his best a 1m 11.841s.

"Today I just carried out a shakedown for the wet tyre test we have planned for tomorrow," he said. "That meant I only needed to put in a handful of laps. There is a new gentleman's agreement in place regarding testing which means that teams can't run three cars together on the track at any one time. So I fitted in my shakedown around what Ralf and Jarno were doing."

Testing continues tomorrow [Saturday], when the track will be artificially flooded so that Michelin can evaulate their latest wet weather tyres.

The big test next week is at Jerez - with all the teams scheduled to be there, except Jordan and Minardi, it begins on Tuesday.

Leading times (4 February) - Valencia:

1. Michael Schumacher Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 10.209secs 122 laps*#
2. Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1min 10.599secs 121 laps
3. Rubens Barrichello Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 10.681secs 100 laps#
4. Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1min 10.748secs 90 laps
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota-Toyota 1min 10.814secs 100 laps
6. Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1min 11.049secs 89 laps
7. Ralf Schumacher Toyota-Toyota 1min 11.635secs 88 laps
8. Ricardo Zonta Toyota-Toyota 1min 11.841secs 13 laps*
9. Enrique Bernodli BAR-Honda 1min 12.298secs 71 laps
10. Adam Carroll BAR-Honda 1min 12.588secs 24 laps*
11. Alan van der Merwe BAR-Honda 1min 13.122secs 53 laps*

[# denotes Bridgestone tyres, all other drivers on Michelin tyres; * denotes 2004 car]

Track conditions: Dry/sunny.

All times unofficial - courtesy of Williams.