Massa stays on top at Barcelona

Massa was nearly seven tenths quicker than yesterday as he took full advantage of his team's experience with the Bridgestone tyres used by all teams for the first time in this maiden test of the off-season.

The Ferrari team completed another solid day of work, with test driver Luca Badoer third fastest in the second car from the Italian team.

The Ferrari duo were split by BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, second fastest but over 0.7 seconds off the pace set by Massa.

Pedro de la Rosa was again the fastest of the McLaren drivers, outpacing teammate Lewis Hamilton, the British rookie finishing less than two tenths of a second behind the Spaniard as he continued with his acclimatisation process.

Frenchman Olivier Panis was back in action for the Toyota team in his penultimate test for the Japanese squad before he retires from the sport at the end of the year. The veteran driver posted the fifth fastest time in the quickest of the Toyotas.

"Following the morning rain the track was damp and the conditions were not ideal, but after that everything went smoothly and we could start investigating the new Bridgestone tyres," said Panis. "From what we can tell so far they are very consistent and there are no warm-up issues.

"Obviously they are harder than the tyres we have been running during 2006 so there is less grip than what we have been used to. But it is the same for everyone and the fact that everyone is now on the same tyres is good because it means we have a level playing field."

The second car from the Cologne-based outfit was driven by Japanese Kamui Kobayashi, who made his debut at the wheel of a Formula One car after winning the qualification race at the Macau F3 event earlier this month.

Kobayashi finished at the bottom of the times after 81 laps.

Austrian Christian Klien was also making a debut today, driving for the Honda team for the first time since he was signed as a test driver to replace Anthony Davidson. Klien completed 79 laps and finished as 11th fastest.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:16.406   83
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:17.159   72
 3.  Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:17.447   71
 4.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:17.584   77
 5.  Panis         Toyota               (B)  1:17.643   78
 6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:17.748   47
 7.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:17.922   96
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Ferrari     (B)  1:18.249   44
 9.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:18.312   86
10.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:18.374   86
11.  Klien         Honda                (B)  1:18.383   79
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (B)  1:18.526   72
13.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  1:18.775   51
14.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:18.778   47
15.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:19.009   47
16.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (B)  1:19.114   50
17.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (B)  1:19.277   66
18.  Kobayashi     Toyota               (B)  1:20.731   81

Distance covered   Km     Laps 
Honda              809.7  175
Toyota             735.7  159
Ferrari            712.6  154
Renault            633.9  137
McLaren Mercedes   573.7  124
BMW Sauber         550.6  119
Red Bull Racing    536.7  116
Toro Rosso         536.7  116
Super Aguri        397.9   86
Williams           217.5   47

All Timing Unofficial