De la Rosa fastest again at Jerez

The McLaren driver, who returned to racing at the French Grand Prix and finished in seventh place, lapped the Spanish track in 1:17.547 after completing 85 laps.

De la Rosa was a whole second quicker than yesterday and nearly half a second faster than Finn Heikki Kovalainen, second quickest today in the first of the Renaults.

A total of nine teams took to the track today for their final test before the August ban kicks in. Most of them focused on their preparations for the German and Hungarian Grands Prix.

De la Rosa worked alongside teammate Gary Paffett, who could replace the Spaniard in future races at McLaren later this season. Paffett spent his day working on tyre testing and aero work, while de la Rosa also tested the new spec engine the team plan to introduce soon.

Kovalainen and Argentine driver Jose Maria Lopez were in charge of testing duties for Renault, the Finn carrying out aerodynamic work for the German Grand Prix, both men also working on tyre testing for Michelin.

Kovalainen caused the first red flag of the day around 9am when he stopped on track.

Honda's Anthony Davidson and Jenson Button were third and fourth quickest respectively as the Japanese squad concentrated on testing tyres and on aerodynamic evaluation for the upcoming races. Button carried out set-up work.

BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica was sixth quickest in the F1.06, while teammate Nick Heidfeld finished down in 13th after 96 laps. Heidfeld tested some new aerodynamic components while Kubica focused mainly on tyre work.

Third driver Kubica caused a red flag around 2:30pm, his car stopping with some sort of mechanical problem.

The other red flags of the day were caused by Toro Rosso's Neel Jani, who spun off around 3pm, and Midland's test driver Giorgio Mondini, whose car stopped on track late in the afternoon.

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta had a busy day, carrying out a big tyre programme for Bridgestone and completing a total of 123 laps on his way to the eighth fastest time of the day.

Alexander Wurz was the only Williams driver in action at Jerez today, the Austrian testing tyres for both Germany and Hungary.

Although the day was not very hot, with temperatures of around 33 degrees Celsius, conditions were very tricky at the Spanish track today, with wind gusts making the cars very unpredictable.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:17.547   85
 2.  Kovalainen    Renault              (M)  1:18.029  128
 3.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:18.200  107
 4.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:18.273   92
 5.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:18.518   93
 6.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:18.753   92
 7.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:18.982   52
 8.  Zonta         Toyota               (B)  1:18.986  123
 9.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:19.140   93
10.  Panis         Toyota               (B)  1:19.143  103
11.  Lopez         Renault              (M)  1:19.394   87
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:19.459   65
13.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:19.560   96
14.  Jani          Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  1:20.379   51
15.  Mondini       MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:21.041   85

All Timing Unofficial