Hamilton tops the times at Jerez

With the focus returning to on-track work, following the racism controversies at Barcelona earlier this month, the pair went through a full programme to end the day a few tenths of a second clear of Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber.

Kazuki Nakajima proved that Williams's front wing problems from Barcelona were well behind them as he set the fourth quickest time, while Nelson Piquet Jr ended up fifth quickest - having spent some of the day practicing pitstops.

Nick Heidfeld was sixth quickest, but he had a far from smooth day as he stalled at the exit of the pits just before lunch, before suffering other niggling problems.

Mark Webber, whose Red Bull Racing RB4 continued to feature the 'Shark Fin' engine cover, ended up seventh overall - having recovered from a bit of chaos in the morning when the track officials delayed opening the circuit because a worker was in a dangerous position.

The cars were all heading for the pit exit at 9:00 am when the lights went red because the worker, helping out with improvements to the run-off area at the last corner ahead of this weekend's MotoGP test, was seen walking on the track.

Webber stalled his engine when he stopped, while other cars had to be pulled back to their garage for the five-minute delay to the start of proceedings.

Sebastian Vettel, who was ninth fastest, brought out a red flag at 3:45 pm when he went off at Turn 10, while the other red flag was caused by Alexander Wurz, who went off at the first corner at 11:21 am.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:19.102   89
 2.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:19.287   88
 3.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:19.539   91
 4.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:19.601   93
 5.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:19.660  120
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:19.958   94
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.013  113
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:20.029  125
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.105   53
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.176  111
11.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.418   82
12.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:21.133   71
13.  di Grassi     Renault              (B)  1:21.200   92
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:21.400   90
15.  Liuzzi        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:21.553  103
16.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:21.950   86

All Timing Unofficial