De la Rosa sets Jerez pace

De la Rosa had to use the car fitted with a V10 engine in the morning, as McLaren ran out of Mercedes V8 units, which arrived in the afternoon.

The Spaniard posted a best time of 1:17.703 to finished over 1.5 seconds ahead of Rosberg in the Cosworth-powered Williams.

De la Rosa's time was set with the V10-engined car, although he also worked with the V8 unit once the engine arrived in the afternoon.

McLaren's other test driver Alex Wurz drove the hybrid car fitted with the V8 engine, and although he enjoyed a productive day and covered 77 laps, the Austrian finished down in ninth place.

Rosberg, on the other hand, did not enjoy a very good day and saw his programme cut short after being hit by mechanical problems. The Williams driver, whose Cosworth engine had to be changed, caused three red flags throughout the day and only managed to cover 24 laps.

Jenson Button was third quickest in the first on the Honda cars, both the Briton and test driver Anthony Davidson at the wheel of V8-engined hybrid machines. Both men focused on tyre work as well as on the development of the Japanese engine.

Jarno Trulli and Ricardo Zonta carried out testing duties for Toyota, the Italian working on a tyre compound programme as the Brazilian worked on a tyre construction one. Zonta caused one of the red flags of the day.

"This was another useful day of testing for us," said Trulli. "I spent the morning primarily working on setting up the car. Then in the afternoon we moved onto tyre testing. We have so far encountered a few difficulties in finding the ideal set-up for the car but that is only to be expected.

"We are still at a very early stage in our relationship with Bridgestone and we are on a steep learning curve to find out how to get the most out of the tyres. Jerez is a fine track to work on that and I'm confident that we will make considerable progress over the winter."

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was again the only BMW driver in action today, the former World Champion enjoying a fruitful day with 86 laps completed. He was hit by mechanical problems, however, causing a red flag with a suspected hydraulics failure.

"We had a minor technical problem today, but this is something normal with an interim car," Villeneuve said. "We don't expect the car to be very fast, but our long-runs were quite good and we are happy with that. The engine ran well today, too.

"We - the Sauber crew and the people from BMW - were also still about getting used to each other. However, overall we were making some progress today."

Tiago Monteiro and MF1 Racing teammate Christijan Albers carried out a comparison test in order to provide engine data to the FIA. While Albers drove a V8-engined car in the morning, Albers used the V10, comparing the performance of both in order to convince the FIA to limit the V10 engines further before the start of the season.

Later in the day the pair swapped cars, with Albers slightly faster than Monteiro overall.

Marc Gene was the only Ferrari driver in action following Luca Badoer's accident on Thursday. Despite losing some time while his team tried to find the cause of Badoer's suspension failure, Gene was pleased with his programme after covering 79 laps.

David Coulthard finished near the bottom of the times for Red Bull, who fitted the Scot's car with a V10 engine simulating V8 performance.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:17.703   77   *
 2.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:19.174   24
 3.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:19.365  122
 4.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:19.670   89
 5.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:19.684   55
 6.  Zonta         Toyota               (B)  1:19.859   60
 7.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:19.864   86
 8.  Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:19.952   63  *
 9.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.105   77
10.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:20.106  102
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:20.114  104  *
12.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:20.400   70
13.  Gene          Ferrari              (B)  1:20.981   79

(*) V10 engine

All Timing Unofficial