De la Rosa on top at sunny Jerez

De la Rosa finished over a second ahead of Frenchman Franck Montagny, second quickest for the Toyota team on a hot and sunny day at the Spanish track, with air temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius.

Only seven testers were in action today, with no racing drivers present.

The test proved productive for all teams, with no red flags during the session. De la Rosa was involved in the only significant incident of the day, going off track and touching the tyre barriers before returning to the circuit.

At the end of the day, de la Rosa and other drivers drove without their traction control activated to prepare for 2008 regulations.

Toyota test driver Montagny, who had not completed a proper test in two months, said: "We spent much of the day running without traction control in preparation for 2008.

"That meant the car was sliding a lot but we put in some useful laps and found a good direction to take.

"This week we are also working on improving our start procedure along with brakes and other systems. So it was a good day and we're getting there. We've already changed the car a lot and I'm happy with it and confident that progress can continue."

Kazuki Nakajima was third fastest for the Williams team, the Japanese being the busiest man today with 103 laps covered.

He finished ahead of Super Aguri's James Rossiter and Honda's Christian Klien, who was back at the wheel of the Japanese car after having tested for the Spyker team at Spa ahead of the European GP.

Nelsinho Piquet was the man in charge of testing duties for Renault, the Brazilian finishing as sixth fastest.

"The main goal for today was to put the necessary mileage on the parts for Monza, and we managed to do so," said Piquet.

"As usual on day one of the test, the circuit conditions were quite poor, and the track was rubbering-in all the way through the day, making it hard to get a good feel for how the car was handling."

Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi had his first proper run in a Formula One car as he replaced German Michael Ammermuller at Red Bull Racing. Buemi completed 78 laps and finished at the bottom of the times.

Autosport.com understands Red Bull asked Jerez officials to certify the distance covered by Buemi in order to apply for a superlicence for the young GP2 racer in order to replace Ammermuller as Red Bull's reserve driver.

Four teams were absent from the Jerez test today. Ferrari and Toro Rosso were testing at the Mugello circuit in Italy, while Spyker are not testing this week.

The BMW Sauber skipped today's session but will be action at Jerez from tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.111   69
 2.  Montagny      Toyota               (B)  1:21.136   73
 3.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.424  103
 4.  Rossiter      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:21.683   92
 5.  Klien         Honda                (B)  1:22.035   70
 6.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:22.537   68
 7.  Buemi         Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:22.565   78

All Timing Unofficial