De la Rosa tops final day of testing

After yesterday's rain-interrupted session, the eight teams present at the Spanish track were able to continue with their scheduled programmes thanks to a sunny day, with air temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius.

De la Rosa, working on aero development and a KERS evaluation programme, was the only man who managed to lap in less than 79 seconds, finishing with a best time of 1:18.992 after 90 laps.

The Spaniard was followed by BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Renault's test driver Lucas di Grassi, who had a busy day as the French team tried to make up for the time lost yesterday.

"It was another hot day, but it was much better than yesterday and we were able to do lots of laps," said di Grassi. "I felt even more comfortable with the car and we have definitely improved it a lot during the week.

"We worked on lots of different things, including some set- up work and new tyre runs in the morning, and in the afternoon we evaluated some parts to be used in the last few races."

Sebastian Vettel returned to his Toro Rosso team after two days testing with Red Bull Racing. The Italian Grand Prix winner finished as fourth fastest after 93 laps.

The Red Bull car was driven today by Sebastien Buemi, who completed the top five ahead of Toyota's Timo Glock, who also had a busy day of work.

"That was a hectic day of testing because I carried out a lot of work for the different kinds of race tracks we have coming up," said Glock. "We got through a lot of laps, finishing our programme without issues.

"It's good that we had consistent weather today but it was still a bit tricky because yesterday's rain on this new surface meant that there was only one line and the rest was really dirty. Nevertheless we made useful progress and gathered information that will help us in the final part of the season."

Honda's test driver Alex Wurz finished seventh, ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Williams.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:18.992   90
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:19.250   98
 3.  di Grassi     Renault              (B)  1:19.280  102
 4.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:19.470   93
 5.  Buemi         Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.005   84
 6.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:20.482  111
 7.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:22.658   51
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:22.806  102

All Timing Unofficial