Hamilton ends Valencia test on top

Hamilton returned to testing action for the first time since he crashed last week at Valencia, working with the new MP4-22.

The Briton finished with a best time of 1:11.119, the best time of the week by over a tenth of second.

The McLaren driver was also the busiest man on track alongside Finn Kimi Raikkonen, both covering 112 laps.

The Ferrari driver finished over sixth tenths behind Hamilton. Raikkonen was again working with the new F2007 and he was the only Ferrari driver on track.

Hamilton's teammate Pedro de la Rosa caused the only red flag of the day when he stopped on track with an apparent engine problem.

The BMW-Sauber team were, along with McLaren and Renault, the only other squad with two cars on track today, with Robert Kubica joined by Sebastian Vettel. The Pole was the fastest of the two after 57 laps.

Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen completed the French squad's programme for the week, working on endurance runs. In the afternoon, both men also focused on set-up development with the R27.

"We had to juggle with our programme according to unpredictable weather this week, but we were nevertheless able to make good progress with our primary objective: endurance testing of the new package to ensure optimum reliability, which is our priority at this stage of the season," said Renault's Christian Silk, chief test engineer.

"We had some very encouraging results on that front, and will look to focus more on performance testing during our next session in Jerez."

Red Bull's Mark Webber had another low-key session, covering just 23 laps with the new RB3 chassis and finishing near the bottom of the times.

Jenson Button was slowest in the new Honda, nearly two seconds off the pace.

Today's times:

Pos Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:11.119  112
2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:11.855  112
3.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:12.242   57
4.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.455   64
5.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  1:12.572   96
6.  Vettel        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:12.675   73
7.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  1:12.679   98
8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:12.776   23
9.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:12.995   89

All Timing Unofficial