By BAR F1
February 24 2005

Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda concluded its pre-season testing programme in Valencia on Thursday, bringing to a close six weeks of intensive preparation since the launch of the B.A.R Honda 007 car in January. The first day of this week's one-car test got underway on Tuesday with Takuma Sato driving. He ran through an aerodynamic evaluation and a short tyre programme completing a total of 82 laps. "I had a final day of running in the 007 car this week which went well," confirmed Sato. "It has been a very intensive testing programme over the winter and overall the progress that we have made is good. Of course you never really know the car's true performance levels until the first race so it will be good to go to Melbourne and get our challenge started."

Jenson Button joined the test on Wednesday, however conditions at the circuit were too wet and cold to allow any productive testing. The weather improved slightly on Thursday and Jenson ran through an aerodynamic evaluation to complete 92 laps and set the fastest time of the day, despite the changeable conditions. "It's been a difficult test this week because of the weather which has been very cold and drizzly," admitted Button. " We did not do any running on Wednesday as we felt it was too cold to get meaningful results. Thursday was a big improvement and we covered 92 laps doing some very useful wet testing. We got good data from key evaluations which we needed to complete before the first race next weekend. It was a positive end to our pre-season preparations and we're all looking forward to getting to Melbourne."

Andrew Alsworth, Test Team Manager, was another frustrated by the conditions in Spain. He reported: "Our final pre-season test this week has been affected by the adverse weather conditions which have limited our planned programme, however we have now finalised the car specification for Melbourne."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director at Honda Racing Development, concluded: "It was good to finish on top of the timesheets on the final day of testing, and we're looking forward to seeing how competitive we really are at the first race next weekend."

22 February 2005

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	Webber	Williams	BMW	FW27	M	1:10.870	-:--.---
2	R Schumacher	Toyota	Toyota	TF105	M	1:11.050	0.180
3	M Schumaher	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2004M	B	1:11.490	0.620
4	Barrichello	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2004M	B	1:12.154	1.284
5	Sato	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:13.252	2.382

23 February 2005

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	M Schumaher	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2004M	B	1:21.766	-:--.---
2	Barrichello	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2004M	B	1:23.686	1.920
3	de la Rosa	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/20	M	1:24.309	2.543
4	Heidfeld	Williams	BMW	FW27	M	1:26.582	4.816
5	R Schumacher	Toyota	Toyota	TF105	M	No Time	-:--.---
6	Button	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	No Time	-:--.---
7	Wurz	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/20	M	No Time	-:--.---

24 February 2005

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	Button	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:20.288	-:--.---
2	Heidfeld	Williams	BMW	FW27	M	1:21.606	1.318
3	Trulli	Toyota	Toyota	TF105	M	1:22.303	2.015