Barcelona 5: Alonso tops

The Spaniard set a fastest time of 1m15.433s driving the new Renault R24, and managed to complete 74 laps in the new machine.

Ferrari tester Badoer was second fastest in the F2003-GA, and managed to outpace world champion team-mate Michael Schumacher in the process.

Williams ace Juan-Pablo Montoya was another race driver who found himself outpaced by his test driver team-mate, setting a time 0.110s slower than Spaniard Marc Gene. Both driver were running a similar programme, making Gene's time all the more impressive - especially as team boss Frank Williams was an interested observer at Barcelona today.

One driver who will have impressed Williams was Nico Rosberg. The young Finn rounded out his week of testing for the team by setting the sixth fastest time of the day, just 0.186s slower than Montoya despite driving a 2003-spec Williams.

Olivier Panis, who was openly unhappy with the new Toyota TF104 yesterday, spent the day exploring the set-up window of the machine. The Frenchman completed 121 laps, affirming Toyota's faith in the car's reliability.

Giancarlo Fisichella was another driver who expressed displeasure with his new machinery yesterday. The Italian's problems arose because new Sauber team-mate Felipe Massa has vastly different set-up requirements, a major problem given the two have shared a car this week.

"It's a shame we had a sensor failure today," said Fisichella. "But we did do some long runs. We didn't waste time trying to find a set-up today. Hopefully we'll have two cars at the next test and I can really work on finding a set-up."

After setting a spectacular lap-time yesterday, BAR star Jenson Button's day was blighted by an equally spectacular Honda engine failure today. The Briton completed just 28 laps all day, and could only set the 10th fastest time.

Anthony Davidson was also in action for BAR - and also suffered a Honda engine failure, although he managed to complete 68 laps before his powerplant expired.

Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m15.433s 74*
Luca Badoer Ferrari B 1m16.016s 87
Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 1m16.182s 99
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m16.190s 74*
Juan-Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m16.300s 60*
Nico Rosberg Williams-BMW M 1m16.486s 81
Franck Montagny Renault M 1m16.539s 84
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m16.816s 121*
Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford B 1m16.877s 82
Jenson Button BAR-Honda M 1m17.041s 28
Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda M 1m17.079s 68
Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas B 1m17.248s 77*
Ryan Briscoe Toyota M 1m18.147s 114

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin
* denotes 2004 car