Badoer quickest despite crash

The Italian, who was running with a V10 engine that simulates V8 levels of power, suffered a suspected front-suspension failure at the hairpin early in the morning session.

The major impact he suffered damaged the Ferrari beyond repair and left the team with no choice but to cut Badoer's test short. The Italian is due to return home to rest.

Despite the incident, Badoer's best lap was eight tenths of a second faster than Jenson Button in the concept Honda Racing car, fitted with a V8 engine.

The Briton just edged out the Renault duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Franck Montagny, both of whom were running with detuned V10 engines, despite suffering a massive engine blow-up late in the day.

Toyota test driver Ryan Briscoe proved he was fully back up to speed with Formula One machinery following his late call-up to action to replace the unwell Olivier Panis as he set the fifth fastest time.

The Australian was almost four tenths quicker than Jarno Trulli, who had been drafted in to replace Ralf Schumacher after the German was forced to pull out of the test with back problems.

Behind the Williams duo of Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg, Gary Paffett suffered a major Mercedes-Benz engine blow-up as the teams continued to discover gremlins with the new V8 power-units.

Further down the order Jacques Villeneuve had a troubled opening day of action with new bosses BMW. His car broke down on its installation lap in the morning and then he suffered further engine dramas later in the day.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:18.237   13  *
 2.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:19.094   71  
 3.  Kovalainen    Renault              (M)  1:19.287  110  *
 4.  Montagny      Renault              (M)  1:19.483  104  *
 5.  Briscoe       Toyota               (B)  1:19.563   65  
 6.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:19.935   59  
 7.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.343   44  
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.464   25  
 9.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.484   69  
10.  Rossiter      Honda                (M)  1:20.603   66  
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:20.854   47  *
12.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.895   29  
13.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:21.008   10  *
14.  Gene          Ferrari              (B)  1:21.122   13  
15.  van Hooydonk  MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:21.625   70  *
16.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:21.684   62  
17.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:24.367   23  

* V10 engine

All Timing Unofficial