Alonso sets the pace at Valencia

Nine teams, most using their new cars, took part in today's first session, which was hampered by poor weather, although all drivers managed to work in the dry during part of the day.

Today was the first opportunity to see so many teams testing with their 2007 cars on the same track, and Alonso took the chance to boost his McLaren's team morale with a best time of 1:12.563 after 85 laps.

The Spanish driver was nearly a second quicker than the man he is replacing at McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen, who made his debut at the wheel of the new Ferrari F2007 and finished as fifth quickest.

Raikkonen worked alongside test driver Luca Badoer, who drove the old 248 F1 car. The Italian's day, however, was cut short after he suffered a mechanical problem around 3:00 pm.

It was not Badoer's only incident of the day, as the Ferrari driver also spun off the track when trying to avoid Alonso as the Spaniard overtook him down the inside.

Nelson Piquet Jr was second quickest in the first of the Renaults, the French squad running with their new livery for the first time. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella drove the second R27 and finished eighth fastest.

"It was pretty frustrating today, waiting for the track conditions to improve," said Fisichella at the end of the day.

"We basically lost a day's work but that can happen at this time of year. We still have three days left though, and I am sure we can make some good progress during the rest of the week."

Apart from the rain, the day was hit by a total of 10 red flags. The session was extended by 10 minutes because of Alonso stopping near the end of the session with smoke coming from the back of his McLaren.

Toyota's new test driver Franck Montagny showed promising pace in the new TF107 car after finishing as third fastest. His teammate Jarno Trulli was sixth, behind Raikkonen and the first of the BMW Saubers, driven by the team's third driver Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel's teammate Nick Heidfeld shook down the second F1.07 chassis.

Honda's Rubens Barrichello worked with the new RA107 car unveiled last week, but the Brazilian covered very limited mileage on his way to the ninth fastest time of the day. Briton James Rossiter took to the track in an interim car.

Williams tester Kazuki Nakajima had a troubled day in the interim Toyota-powered car, the Japanese driver causing three red flags, two due to mechanical problems and one when he went off track in the afternoon.

Mark Webber was the only Red Bull driver at Valencia today. The Australian completed just 27 laps at the wheel of the new RB3 and finished over three seconds off the pace.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.563   85
 2.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:13.549   27
 3.  Montagny      Toyota               (B)  1:13.672   33
 4.  Vettel        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:13.683   75
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:13.691   45
 6.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:13.735   50
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:13.848   49
 8.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  1:13.867   34
 9.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:14.025   29
10.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:14.520   51   *
11.  Rossiter      Honda                (B)  1:14.643   37   *
12.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:15.674   27   *
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:15.726   27
14.  Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:16.334   35   *

* 2006/interim car

All Timing Unofficial