De la Rosa on Top at Jerez

After only the Williams team worked at the Spanish track on Tuesday, three other Formula One squads joined the test for a total of seven drivers in action today.

The McLaren team, leading the Constructors' Championship after their one-two in Brazil, had two drivers on track, with de la Rosa working alongside Alexander Wurz, both men concentrating mainly on tyre testing for the remaining races of the year.

De la Rosa, who stopped late in the session with smoke coming out of the rear of his car, posted a best time of 1:16.410 to finish ahead of Australian Mark Webber in the fastest of the Williams cars.

Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who was confirmed today for the final two Grands Prix of the season, was third quickest in the second Williams, ahead of Wurz in the second McLaren MP4-20.

Red Bull Racing's Vitantonio Liuzzi also kicked off his team's testing programme today, the Italian the only Red Bull driver on track. Liuzzi was also the busiest driver today, covering a massive 109 laps at the wheel of the RB1 car.

Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta finished at the bottom of the times for the Japanese squad. Schumacher, who caused one of today's four red flags, continued with the development work of the TF105B machine.

Zonta, meanwhile, drove the the hybrid car with next year's V8 engine, the Brazilian stopping twice on track with apparent mechanical problems.

All four teams will continue testing tomorrow, when BAR and Renault are scheduled to join for their final test of the season.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:16.410   81
 2.  Webber        Williams-BMW         (M)  1:16.734  103
 3.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW         (M)  1:16.790   79
 4.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:16.834   71
 5.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:17.019  109
 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (M)  1:17.652   87
 7.  Zonta         Toyota               (M)  1:20.762   70
 
All Timing Unofficial