By Josh Barnett
December 23 2004

Pedro De la Rosa went quickest in artificially dampened conditons in the latest test at Jerez, Spain. He was a whole three seconds quicker than Takuma Sato in his BAR-Honda.

Pedro de la Rosa topped the times, in his McLaren Mercedes, on Sunday the 12th December at Jerez as the pre-Christmas test season drew to a close.

The track was artificially dampened so that the teams could work on Michelin's latest wet weather compounds.

The Spaniard completed 96 laps, the most of anyone present at the test. His best time was 1 minute 26.955 seconds. Takuma Sato was second but was a whole three seconds slower, while Renault's Frank Montagny was third, three tenths off the BAR. Ricardo Zonta was the only other runner on track with his best, in the Toyota TF104B a 1m 31.517s, 1.058s slower than Montagny.

Testing will now resume in January.

Leading times (12 December) - Jerez:

1. Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1m 26.955s 96 laps

2. Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1m 30.112s 70 laps

3. Franck Montagny Renault-Renault 1m 30.459s 68 laps

4. Ricardo Zonta Toyota-Toyota 1m 31.517s 63 laps

[All on Michelin tyres] Weather/track conditions: Track artificially dampened All times unofficial