Kovalainen goes quickest at Jerez

On a hot and sunny day, the Finn driver posted a best time of 1:16.934 as teams concentrated on their preparations for the French and German Grands Prix.

Kovalainen was the only driver to lap the Spanish circuit in less than 77 seconds, the Renault tester setting the quickest time of the week so far by quite a margin. Argentine Jose Maria Lopez drove the second R26 again.

Jenson Button took over from test driver Anthony Davidson to join his Honda team today to work alongside teammate Rubens Barrichello. Button, second fastest after 93 laps, caused a red flag during the day when his car stopped with a mechanical problem in the afternoon.

The BMW-Sauber squad enjoyed another strong day at Jerez, with their driver Robert Kubica and Jacques Villeneuve finishing third and fourth quickest respectively.

The duo, plus F3 Euroseries driver Sebastian Vettel, has been in charge of testing duties this week while Nick Heidfeld rests following his spectacular crash at the start of the United States Grand Prix.

The day did not go smoothly for Villeneuve, however, who caused three red flags during the session. The Canadian went off the track twice during the day, also stopping with mechanical problems once before noon.

"We did some tyre work, but it is very hard to do any assessment for the French GP because of the heat," Villeneuve told autosport.com. "We have managed to narrow the tyre selection down. We will do more tomorrow. I went off and had some problems too so we will do more tyre testing."

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa, fastest on the first two days of work, was only fifth quickest today, the Spaniard again working on an upgraded Mercedes-Benz V8 engine.

Championship contenders Ferrari began their preparations for the French Grand Prix today, with Michael Schumacher and Luca Badoer carrying out testing duties.

The Ferrari duo did not complete a lot of running today, with Badoer covering 55 and Schumacher just 42. The German driver suffered a fuel pump failure early in the morning and finished down as 10th quickest.

The other two red flags of the session were caused by Toyota's Ralf Schumacher spinning in the morning and Williams driver Mark Webber stopping on track late in the afternoon.

Honda, McLaren and Renault completed their programmes today, while the rest of the teams continue testing tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver       Team                   Time     Laps
 1.  Kovalainen   Renault           (M)  1:16.934   75
 2.  Button       Honda             (M)  1:17.163   93
 3.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber        (M)  1:17.860  106
 4.  Villeneuve   BMW-Sauber        (M)  1:18.018   75
 5.  de la Rosa   McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:18.084   73
 6.  Trulli       Toyota            (B)  1:18.179   99
 7.  Badoer       Ferrari           (B)  1:18.234   55
 8.  Barrichello  Honda             (M)  1:18.322   93
 9.  Paffett      McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:18.372   76
10.  M.Schumacher Ferrari           (B)  1:18.682   42
11.  Klien        Red Bull-Ferrari  (M)  1:18.704   77
12.  R.Schumacher Toyota            (B)  1:18.813   65
13.  Lopez        Renault           (M)  1:19.246   72
14.  Webber       Williams-Cosworth (B)  1:19.252   65

All Timing Unofficial