Barrichello tops the times at Jerez

The Honda driver set a best time of 1:17.602 to finish just ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in the first of the Renaults.

Barrichello's Honda car was fitted with the latest specification engine used by the Japanese squad in Friday's practice for the Italian Grand Prix last week. The Honda driver, who caused a red flag late in the session when he stopped on track, was joined by James Rossiter.

"It was a good day," said Barrichello. "I had some new aero stuff, and did the Shanghai tyres. It looks we will be competitive. We had some parts in the engine, and the car looks balanced. In the end I stopped the car when the engine got tight, I hope it is not broken."

Rossiter, not using the latest Honda engine, focused on set-up work and tyre testing for the Chinese Grand Prix, finishing as fourth fastest after 96 laps. The Briton will get the latest spec engine tomorrow.

Giancarlo Fisichella, who joined the test today, had a troubled day, stopping on track before 11am and then suffering two engine failures, one around noon and the other just two hours later.

"It was not a good day," Fisichella told autosport.com. "Every time I started a tyre programme, I had a problem.

"It is the same engine Fernando had in Monza. We know what is the problem, but why it keeps breaking, I do not know. I need to assess the tyres for Shanghai so I need some good running tomorrow. We may have to lower the revs so that I can do some tyre testing."

Renault's Jose Maria Lopez, replacing the unwell Heikki Kovalainen, finished behind Fisichella after only 19 laps.

The Red Bull Racing team finished at the bottom of the times with Robert Doornbos and Toro Rosso driver Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Italian, who caused the other red flag of the day, finished at the bottom of the times after 64 laps.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  1:17.602   81
 2.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:17.752   71
 3.  Lopez         Renault              (M)  1:18.070   19
 4.  Rossiter      Honda                (M)  1:18.217   93
 5.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:18.325   91
 6.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:18.672   64

All Timing Unofficial