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Hamilton sets the pace at Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton maintained the slight speed edge that McLaren have shown against rivals Ferrari in Barcelona, when he topped the times on the first day of this week's final full pre-season test

The morning had started in damp conditions but a dry line appeared in the early afternoon to allow teams some chance to get on with evaluating their final developments ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's best lap was just a few hundredths of a second faster than Kimi Raikkonen, with Michael Schumacher returning to action in the 2008 car to set the third best time.

Kazuki Nakajima maintained the continued impressive pace of the Williams to end up fourth quickest, ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and Williams teammate Nico Rosberg.

Nick Heidfeld recovered from a mechanical problem in the morning, that left him stranded between Turns 4 and 5, to set the eighth best time.

The other red flags were brought out by Sebastian Vettel, who went off at Turn 3 at 10.05am, and Nelson Piquet, who touched the pit wall entry just before 1pm.

Adrian Sutil delivered some encouraging news for Force India as he set the 11th best time as they ran their 2008 car for the first time.

The Toyota team had a low-key day, with Timo Glock down in 15th, right in front of test drivrer Kamui Kobayashi.

"Again, these were not the ideal conditions for testing because of the damp start to the action," said Glock. "We did some running in the morning but not much because the track was changing so much. It became more stable during the second half of the afternoon and that went better for me.

"We worked on finding a set-up direction to suit my driving style better. We found an improved car balance and I was much happier with it today. We couldn't try everything because we were a bit short of time in the afternoon but it was a good day."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.276   78
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:22.319   82
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1:22.428   83
 4.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:22.724   54
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.852   71
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:22.974  108
 7.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:23.021   79
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:23.075   75
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:23.091   62
10.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:23.115   71
11.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:23.188   95
12.  Klien         BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:23.239   43
13.  Liuzzi        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:23.270   70
14.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:23.442   42
15.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:23.609   86
16.  Kobayashi     Toyota               (B)  1:23.880   29
17.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:24.460  115
18.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:24.667  109
19.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:24.826   25

All Timing Unofficial

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