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Anthony Davidson commenced the three-day Silverstone programme
(28th-30th), the focus of which has been preparation for the British
Grand Prix, Bridgestone tyre testing and some exploration of
development parts. Persistent rain showers on day one meant that the
team were unable to carry out pre-race testing for Silverstone, so
Anthony concentrated on a wet weather tyre test. He completed 37
laps in total but progress was hampered by several red flags as
heavy rain caused some cars to spin off. His best lap was a
1:35.581.
Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Lemarié took over on Wednesday,
Jacques in the BAR004 and Patrick in the BAR003. A dry morning
session enabled Jacques to begin a tyre test and conduct some set-up
and suspension work. A hailstorm and heavy rain in the afternoon cut
the test short with Jacques completing 55 laps in total. Patrick, in
his first test for the team this year, encountered an electrical
problem in the morning but this was soon resolved and he spent the
remainder of his time acclimatising to the car before the rain ended
his session after 27 laps. Jacques and Patrick posted best lap times
of 1:23.792 and 1:25.923 respectively.
Jacques and Patrick paired up again for day 3 today but the
notorious Silverstone weather once again hampered progress. Jacques
completed 53 laps nonetheless and posted a 1:24.178. Patrick
completed 25 laps and achieved a best time of 1:26.142.
At Paul Ricard, Olivier Panis commenced a four-day test (29th May
- 1st June) on Wednesday and spent his first day doing set-up
work, evaluating the new aerodynamic package and running with an
intermediate spec of the transmission components for Canada. He
encountered a brief mechanical problem in the morning but was then
able to achieve 74 laps a total of 430 km and a lap time of
1:35.802.
Olivier continued with that programme today at Paul Ricard, this
time running with the new evolution of the Honda engine for Canada.
He enjoyed another good day's running, completing 44 laps and
posting a 1:35.353, an unofficial lap record on that particular
circuit configuration. Anthony Davidson will now take over for two
further days on Friday and Saturday.
Commenting on this week's split test progress, Technical Director
Geoffrey Willis said: "Generally, we've made good progress at
both circuits and have been able to explore some aspects of the
revised car for Canada. We still have some work to do into the
weekend at Paul Ricard and we will continue to understand the car
more as we use it in Montreal. We're pleased with what we have
achieved so far though."
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