Analysis: early clues from Valencia test

When Heikki Kovalainen's Renault stopped near the end of scheduled testing on Thursday, a 10-minute track extension led most of the teams to put on new tyres and adopt a low-fuel strategy in a bid to simulate their qualifying pace.

It rarely happens that a lot of teams adopt such a route at exactly the same time, but that frantic 10-minute session provided some early clues about the overall pace of the cars - and more importantly the characteristics of tyres.

These are the best laps from the final 10 minutes, with the lap on which the time was set.

Alonso      Renault          1:10.904  1st lap
Klien       Red Bull Racing  1:11.769  4th lap
Massa       Ferrari F2004    1:11.976  4th lap
Button      Honda Racing     1:12.087  3rd lap
Rossi       Ferrari F2004    1:12.731  2nd lap
Davidson    Honda Racing     1:13.192  6th lap
Montoya     McLaren          1:13.623  1st lap
Trulli      Toyota           1:13.636  2nd lap
Villeneuve  BMW-Sauber       1:14.626  6th lap
Wurz        Williams         1:15.386  2nd lap

Alonso clearly proved the master of this short session, putting in a time on his first flying lap that was almost one second clear of his nearest rival - even though the Spaniard's best lap only just edged the quickest time Jenson Button had put in earlier on in the day during a long-run.

The only other driver to set his quickest time on the first flying lap was Juan Pablo Montoya, although his effort in the McLaren was almost three seconds adrift of Alonso.

The immediate pace of Alonso and Montoya shows that Michelin have maintained their tyre characteristic from last season of being quick straight out of the box, while it appears that Bridgestone rubber is still taking time to come up to operating temperature.

The fact that Felipe Massa in the F2004 set the best time on his fourth flying lap, and one-lap qualifying expert Jarno Trulli on his second lap, seems to prove this fact.

But while a long warming-up period may have punished Bridgestone teams in the past, with single-lap qualifying, the new knock-out format and the unlimited number of laps that will be adopted this year means that drivers will easily be able to get the laps needed to get their tyres at their best.

Elsewhere, Christian Klien's lap suggests that Red Bull Racing's RB2 has some pace - even if cooling issues have blighted their long-runs.

Valentino Rossi's fifth fastest time may look impressive, but he did that lap on his second new tyre run in that session - having spun off on his first attempt as he tried to overtake Montoya.

The main outstanding question mark from that end of day 10-minute blast, however, was what Michael Schumacher would have been capable of in the Ferrari 248 F1.

The former World Champion had already finished his day's programme when the extension took place - leaving his rivals only able to guess about where the Maranello team currently stand in the rankings.