De la Rosa tops final day of Monza test

Nine teams stayed on for an extra day of running following Thursday's wet weather, but conditions were not much better in the morning.

Overnight rain showers left the Monza track soaked early on and most teams stayed in their garages while the circuit dried out.

With the sun breaking through the teams took an early lunch break to maximise their running in the afternoon - a decision that proved well founded when the conditions turned out sunny and hot.

McLaren and Ferrari, who are locked in a tight battle for the world championship, did plenty of long runs to prepare for the race, before trying out some shorter evaluations later in the day.

In the end de la Rosa's best effort of one minute 23.285 seconds was just four thousandths of a second faster than Felipe Massa.

Robert Kubica maintained BMW Sauber's position as best of the rest with the third quickest time, while Nico Rosberg was fourth quickest before an engine failure at the end of the day brought an early end to his running.

Jenson Button showed some more encouraging form for Honda Racing to set the fifth quickest time, ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi who brought a red flag out at 5.20pm when he stopped on the track.

Ralf Schumacher was the other driver who brought a red flag out at 4.10pm, when he stopped on track as a precaution following a warning signal from his car.

Today's times:

Pos   Driver        Team                     Time      Laps
 1.   de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:23.285   55
 2.   Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:23.289   67
 3.   Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:23.575   68
 4.   Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:23.962   94
 5.   Button        Honda               (B)  1:24.537   61
 6.   Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:24.760   79
 7.   R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:24.837   39
 8.   Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:25.185   69
 9.   Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:25.416  104

All timing unofficial