Alonso on top with R26 at Jerez

The Renault driver, who tested the new R26 for the first time yesterday, proved he is happy with the handling of the new French car and posted a best time of 1:18.512 to finish nearly seven tenths of a second in front of Anthony Davidson in the Honda.

The day began poorly for all the teams present at the Spanish track, where a drop of rain hindered their plans. The sun shone eventually and allowed for the track to dry up, but intermittent bouts of rain from 2pm onwards hampered the day's work and the afternoon was wasted.

Despite the rain, Alonso managed to complete 65 laps with the R26, on a day where, apart from the rain, the progress was slowed by several red flags, the session being stopped 11 times in the afternoon alone as the drivers went off track in the slippery conditions. Renault were the only team not to cause a red flag all week.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who made his debut with the Honda team yesterday, continued acclimatising to his new squad, today driving the V8-engined car.

The poor conditions, however, allowed him to complete just 33 laps, although the Brazilian was pleased at the end of the day. Barrichello was one of few drivers who ventured out with wet weather tyres, as he wanted to test Michelins in rainy conditions for the first time.

"I only did 30 odd laps but with those laps I am quite happy," Barrichello told autosport.com.

"I learned a lot about the V8. In the morning I struggled a bit, as the set-up was just not right and Anthony was doing a good job with the tyres then, so I talked to him and I managed to get that right but then when I went out it was when when it started raining.

"I got the best time then. I am sure I could have gone faster and of course I would have preferred to have done 100 laps but it was good."

Alexander Wurz rejoined the test with the Williams team, but the Austrian had another poor day and managed just 11 laps and not only because of the weather, but also because of massive a engine blow-up in the afternoon.

Red Bull's Christian Klien also had a brief day of work after he went off track and damaged his car. The Austrian was slowest again.

"That all went very well," said Head of Race and Test Engineering, Paul Monaghan. "Christian was quite encouraged by the car's performance today, but unfortunately, an off-track excursion meant we had to bring this session to a premature end to repair the damage prior to tomorrow's Michelin wet track test."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  1:18.512  65
 2.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:19.257  68
 3.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:19.784  49  *
 4.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:19.791  47  *
 5.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:19.845  36  *
 6.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  1:20.030  33
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:20.482  62
 8.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.512  61
 9.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.918  11
10.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:21.631  23

* V10 engine

All Timing Unofficial