De la Rosa moves closer to McLaren role

The Spaniard, who is testing for McLaren at Barcelona this week, impressed the team in his first run at Jerez after the Australian Grand Prix. He is expected to sit down with the team when this week's testing ends. If an agreement is reached, he would line up alongside McLaren's reserve driver Alexander Wurz in the test team.

McLaren's managing director Martin Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT: "He [de la Rosa] did quite well and exceeded the expectations of many. We're not committed to long-term relationship yet, but we'll be talking to him within the next couple of weeks or so about that. It's a very open arrangement at the moment."

British drivers Gary Paffett and Darren Turner had both been hoping to land a fulltime role with McLaren in a testing capacity. Both are committed to racing campaigns in Formula 3000 and the FIA GT Championship respectively, however.