Button quickest on final day at Jerez

Jenson Button set the fastest lap of the Jerez testing fortnight on today's eighth and final day of pre-season running at the Spanish venue

The world champion set his 1m18.871s during a series of short runs this morning, as teams enjoyed a completely rain-free day for the first time all week.

Like most of the field, Button and McLaren set their best time early in the session before switching to longer stints and heavy fuel for most of the rest of the day.

Robert Kubica followed a similar tactic and took second place for Renault, 0.243 seconds down on Button's time.

By contrast Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi languished down the order at first and caused an early red flag, but crept up to third with a series of consistently fast runs during the afternoon.

He was followed by Tonio Liuzzi (Force India), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), with Jaime Alguersuari seventh for Toro Rosso.

Mark Webber lost several hours in the Red Bull garage after his car stopped on track. The team has yet to confirm the nature of the failure, but it required a precautionary engine change. He eventually rejoined and was eighth.

Williams spent virtually the whole day on long runs. Nico Hulkenberg was only ninth on the timesheets, but covered 137 laps despite stopping on the pits straight in the last hour.

The battle of the new teams at the tail of the field saw Timo Glock and Virgin emerging fastest, but Jarno Trulli and Lotus getting significantly more track time.

Glock's pace was promising - the German lapping on a par with the existing midfield teams early on - but continued hydraulics gremlins limited him to just 28 laps all day, and he caused the week's final red flag when he stopped in the last minute of the session.

Trulli was a second off Glock's pace and 4.5s down on Button in his first day in the Lotus T127, but did complete an impressive 141 laps - the most of any driver today - with no significant problems as the team focused on long runs, acclimatisation and set-up work.

Pos  Driver             Team         Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Jenson Button      McLaren      1m18.871s            108
 2.  Robert Kubica      Renault      1m19.114s  + 0.243s  117
 3.  Kamui Kobayashi    Sauber       1m19.188s  + 0.317s  117
 4.  Tonio Liuzzi       Force India  1m19.650s  + 0.779s  80
 5.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes     1m20.061s  + 1.190s  130
 6.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari      1m20.436s  + 1.565s  137
 7.  Jaime Alguersuari  Toro Rosso   1m21.053s  + 2.182s  139
 8.  Mark Webber        Red Bull     1m21.194s  + 2.323s  87
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg    Williams     1m21.919s  + 3.048s  137
10.  Timo Glock         Virgin       1m22.433s  + 3.562s  28
11.  Jarno Trulli       Lotus        1m23.470s  + 4.599s  141

All timing unofficial