BAR's Anthony Davidson topped the timesheets on the first day of testing at Monza.

The Brackley outfit also has cars at Silverstone, but due to the test agreement between the nine 'rebel' teams, which limits testing to 30 days during the season, and also stipulates that teams will only run on one track at a time, it was decided to run at the Autodromo Nazionale, and allow the Silverstone test unit to enjoy the start of the British summer.

Davidson's best time was 0.885s quicker than Ferrari tester Marc Gene's, and only 0.094s off the best time posted at the Italian track this year. Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi was also on duty for the Honda powered team.

Both drivers spent the morning acclimatising themselves to the circuit and establishing a good balance on the cars. Anthony spent the day working through an aerodynamic programme, while Enrique also ran through an aerodynamic programme, alongside a tyre programme evaluating options for the US Grand Prix.

The team will make the decision in the morning about whether to test at Monza or Silverstone tomorrow. This is dependant on the weather situation at Silverstone.

Gene, Ferrari's sole runner at Monza - Luca Badoer was in action at Silverstone - worked on Bridgestone tyre development and aerodynamics for the forthcoming races.

Jarno Trulli was third quickest in the Toyota, as the Japanese team followed BAR's example, since it too has a test team at Silverstone. If the weather improves - which is unlikely - the Italian will be in action in England tomorrow.

Sauber had Jacques Villeneuve on duty, the former champion finishing fifth quickest, 1.3s off the pace.

"The focus of the test this week will be the preparation for the next two races in North America," revealed Jacky Eeckelaert. "In Montreal and Indianapolis it will be the first time this season that we run with aerodynamic packages for medium downforce levels. Therefore, we will evaluate several new parts, mainly front and rear wings. Some of them we tested to a certain extent already at Le Castellet three weeks ago and need to verify them here in Monza, but we will also have completely new parts on the car. In the morning Jacques did a comparison of the new package and later in the afternoon he worked with Michelin on the tyre selection for Montreal.

"Tomorrow Felipe will continue testing the new aerodynamic parts and will then concentrate on a tyre programme for Indianapolis."

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