Ferrari set Jerez pace with F2008

Both men were driving Ferrari's new F2008 car, unveiled last week in Maranello.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa was third quickest in the new McLaren MP4-23, while Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel managed the fourth fastest time, ahead of the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.

Both de la Rosa and Kovalainen had already been in action at Jerez last week during a three-day test following the launch of the new McLaren.

"The only problem was because of the wet condition," Kovalainen said. "We had a plan to do a GP simulation but we could not do it.

"The only thing which got changed (from the previous test) is the seating position. I am sitting a bit lower now, somehow I was used to sit a bit higher. The reliability is good."

McLaren decided to not run in the morning in order to avoid risks, but de la Rosa was still happy with the day's work.

"We have seized a difficult day because in the morning, with the wet track, it was better to not go out and we decided to not go out until the track was dry," de la Rosa told autosport.com.

"The car is working pretty well and like everybody says, it's just been born, but it's a step forward compared to last year's.

"The important thing is that the car is very similar to last year's one, it's reliable. We have been able to do a long run of 20 something laps without a problem and that's the most positive thing. That's the target for tomorrow: to do a lot of laps.

"The car is very similar to last year's, so the first time that I tested it it didn't really surprise me. But the truth is that the car is missing a lot of pieces yet. A lot of pieces are from last year. We don't have the full spec yet."

Toro Rosso completed a strong session, with Sebastien Bourdais posting the sixth fastest time ahead of Nico Rosberg in the hybrid Williams FW29B.

Apart from the two Ferraris and the two McLarens, Toyota were the other team running with their 2008 car, with Jarno Trulli the man in charge of putting the TF108 through its paces.

The Italian, whose teammate Timo Glock drove last year's car, completed a total of 84 laps, the most by any driver today, and finished as eighth quickest.

"Everything went smoothly today," said Trulli. "We were competitive all day, in the wet and in the dry. We pushed our performance forward and also gained more experience with this new car, which is very important and we are understanding more and more how it works.

"The roll-out yesterday was successful and we were able to complete a lot of laps without any trouble. The car seems to be running well and there are no major problems. I was happy to do so many laps with a new car today - it was a positive day."

Nelsinho Piquet was the only Renault driver in action, with Red Bull's David Coulthard also without a teammate on track.

Italian Tonio Liuzzi made his debut as an official test driver for Force India, finishing as 11th quickest.

"We have improved from the last test we did here and the car seemed to respond better than last time, so that was already better," said Liuzzi.

"It was quite a difficult day though as we had a few mechanical problems and we had to wait in the garage for a while, so we didn't put in too many laps, but the few laps we did I think were pretty positive.

"It was just unfortunate that the issues stopped us doing some more, but it is a three day test and we can look forward to some more development. We are going in the right direction and still have a lot of work to do."

James Rossiter wound up at the bottom of the times with the Super Aguri-Honda after managing just 10 laps due to problems with the rear axle of his car, which caught fire and forced to team to wait for new parts to arrive.

The session began with on a wet track following early showers, and it finally dried out around 1:30pm.

There were a total of eight red flags during the session, caused by Massa, Vettel, Bourdais, Nakajima, Piquet (2) and Glock (2).

Only BMW, launching their new car in Germany, were absent from the test.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:19.846   59 *
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:20.123   42 *
 3.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.548   54 *
 4.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.732   40
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.936   48 *
 6.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.997   47
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.143   47
 8.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:21.314   84 *
 9.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:21.696   41
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.746   49
11.  Liuzzi        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:23.035   44
12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:23.134   42
13.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:24.351   56
14.  Rossiter      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:34.862   10

All Timing Unofficial