De la Rosa just edges Kubica at Barcelona

De la Rosa, however, beat BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica by just a thousand of a second as the German squad continued to show they could be the surprise of the season judging by their current form.

Kubica, who caused two red flags during the day, once when he stopped on track for a dry tank test. The Pole was working alongide German Timo Glock, 10th quickest.

World champion Fernando Alonso completed a good day for McLaren with the third best time of the day, less than a tenth behind teammate de la Rosa.

The Williams team had another encouraging day, with Alexander Wurz posting the fourth fastest time in the FW29. Teammate Nico Rosberg was ninth fastest after 28 laps.

Ferrari endured a dismal day, with both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen being hit by electrical problems that hindered their programme and cut their running short.

Massa's car stopped on his opening lap, the electrical problem causing a small fire that led to a long stop for repairs. Raikkonen also spent several hours in the garage as the Italian squad tried to solve the problem.

Italian Jarno Trulli and Frenchman Franck Montagny continued with the development of the new Toyota TF107, the Japanese squad hoping to put several miles on the car this week following a somewhat trouble Jerez test.

Trulli had a productive day, covering a Grand Prix distance on his way to the seventh fastest time.

Heikki Kovalainen was the quickest of the Renault drivers, the French squad testing new aero developments as well as set-ups. The Finn outpaced teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, 11th quickest.

Honda had another low-key day of testing with their new car. Test driver Christian Klien finished 13th after 51 laps, while teammate Rubens Barrichello covered just 24 after stopping twice and going off once.

The Brazilian driver only outpaced the Spyker of Adrian Sutil, whose team were testing along their rivals for the first time since they unveiled their new car last week.

Red Bull's David Coulthard and Mark Webber once more finished close to the bottom of the times, with the Australian's running cut short by a hydraulic problem.

Anthony Davidson was the only Super Aguri driver on track, leaving just Toro Rosso as the sole Formula One team not testing today at Barcelona.

There were a total of nine red flags in today's session, which was hit by rain around lunch time.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.634   76
 2.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:22.635   60
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.726   56
 4.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:23.037   44
 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:23.077   29
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:23.215   25
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:23.239   74
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  1:23.491   55
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:23.602   78
10.  Glock         BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:23.653   61
11.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  1:23.869   79
12.  Montagny      Toyota               (B)  1:24.015   64
13.  Klien         Honda                (B)  1:24.227   51
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:24.291   80
15.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:24.531   83
16.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:24.574   66
17.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:24.934   24
18.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  1:25.581   83

All Timing Unofficial