Jerez test - day three: 9 December.

McLaren continued its run at the head of the timesheets during the latest Formula One group test in Spain, with new arrival Kimi Raikkonen going fastest of all on day three at Jerez de la Frontera.

The Finn replaced new team-mate - and opening day pacesetter - Juan Montoya in the lead McLaren on what was his first day of testing since coming home second to the Colombian in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix in October. Raikkonen completed 98 laps with a fastest time of 1min 16.658secs as all seven teams enjoyed another day of favourable conditions in southern Spain. Both the Finn and team-mate Alex Wurz - who took over from Wednesday pacesetter Pedro de la Rosa - continued with the Michelin tyre programme that McLaren has been following all week.

Toyota again maintained its strong start to the winter season, with Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher posing the biggest challenge to Raikkonen, but neither could ultimately get within three-tenths of the Finn, although Trulli did join the McLaren man in the 1min 16s.

Williams continued to feature strongly in the top five, although Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld were unable to repeat the second fastest time set by Antonio Pizzonia on Wednesday. The Australian eventually clocked a 1min 17.5secs best lap, and was closely followed by Heidfeld, who took over from Pizzonia amid rumours that he had definitely signed a deal with the Grove team for 2005.

Webber, unaffected by the speculation that continued to surround the identity of his team-mate, continued with set-up work on his interim FW26-BMW, including a number of practice starts in anticipation of the proposed regulation changes for 2005. However, his progress was interrupted during the afternoon session, as his car required an engine change.

Heidfeld returned to the Williams camp on the back of his strong showing in last week's test, and continued to familiarise himself with the FW26 while he worked on set-up evaluation. The German, who was initially due to test on this date when announced along with Anthony Davidson, carried out a number of long runs as he appraised tyres, eventually completing a mammoth 127 laps.

Renault's Franck Montagny completed the highest tally of laps during the day - 152 in total - as he again led the Renault effort in sixth spot. The Frenchman, who is expected to be retained as Renault's chief tester in 2005, focused on tyre testing throughout the day, but is was a less productive session for new team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, who suffered a number of mechanical problems that hampered his progress.

"Franck did a great job today, concentrating on long runs with the tyres, and completed a substantial programme," chief test engineer Christian Silk commented, "We learned a lot about the tyre behaviour, and development is progressing well.

"On the other side of the garage, Giancarlo only completed a small number of laps owing to several mechanical difficulties. However, during the laps he did complete, he found the car to be well-balanced and his times were competitive."

Behind Wurz's McLaren, David Coulthard continued his first test with the Red Bull Racing team, and again out-paced the two youngsters sharing the second car alongside him. Shrugging off speculation suggesting that he will be formally announced as an RBR driver as early as next week, Coulthard completed another 52 laps in what is basically last year's Jaguar, clocking a 1min 18.108secs best lap that compared comfortably with his Wednesday time.

Team-mates Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi proved more evenly matched during their runs, with the Austrian still holding the upper hand, but this time only by a tenth as F3000 champion Liuzzi hauled himself up off the bottom of the times. The pair were around six-tenths slower than Coulthard, however, although Klien only completed 29 laps.

DC was separated from his young team-mates by both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, who continued the respective programmes set out by BAR and Ferrari. Button was keen to make up for time lost to an engine change on Wednesday, and added 102 laps of data-logging to BAR's haul this week. The Briton was again out in the '05 concept' car, working on tyre evaluations and set-up options.

Barrichello replaced new Ferrari recruit Marc Gene in the lead F2004 to offer an alternative appraisal of the latest development tyres from Bridgestone. The Brazilian also worked on the comparison of new components but, having not turned an F1 wheel since his home grand prix two months ago, was unable to better Gene's Wednesday best by much, despite completing 67 tours. Team-mate Luca Badoer did 86 laps and was three-tenths of a second slower.

Behind the Italian, the BAR-Honda shared by Enrique Bernoldi and Anthony Davidson filled the last two spots on the chart, as the duo continued with various aero simulations and other set-up work.

Testing continues tomorrow, with the biggest personnel change seeing Heidfeld being partnered by Pizzonia, his rival for the second seat at Williams. The Grove team has also announced that, despite being scheduled to end its test tomorrow [Friday], it had decided to extend its programme by an extra day.

Leading times (9 December) - Jerez:

Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes 1m 16.658s 98 lapsJarno Trulli Toyota-Toyota 1m 16.936s 70 lapsRalf Schumacher Toyota-Toyota 1m 17.114s 87 lapsMark Webber Williams-BMW 1m17.514s 73 lapsNick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1m17.558s 127 lapsFranck Montagny Renault-Renault 1m17.726s 152 lapsGiancarlo Fisichella Renault-Renault 1m17.851s 20 lapsAlex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1m 17.889s 81 lapsDavid Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth 1m 18.108s 52 lapsJenson Button BAR-Honda 1m18.165s 102 lapsRubens Barrichello Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 18.519s 67 laps*Christian Klien Red Bull-Cosworth 1m18.614s 29 lapsVitantonio Liuzzi Red Bull-Cosworth 1m 18.786s 64 lapsLuca Badoer Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 18.808s 86 laps*Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda 1m18.898s 43 lapsEnrique Bernoldi BAR-Honda 1m19.056s 55 laps

[* denotes Bridgestone tyres; all others on Michelin]

Track conditions: Sunny

All times unofficial - courtesy of McLaren