Hamilton sets the pace at Jerez

The McLaren driver, on his first day in the car following the end of the season, ran off the track in the first hour of running, but he did not hit anything and, after his car was returned to the pits, he was quickly able to resume his testing programme.

That resulted in him just edging out the slick-shod Red Bull Racing car of David Coulthard, who was one of several drivers to try out the experimental rubber.

"It was pretty cool to be back behind the wheel of my car again today, it has felt like a very long time since the Brazilian Grand Prix," said Hamilton. "I have missed my car. I have really kick started my preparations for the 2008 season today and there are only 101 days to go until Australia.

"I know the time is going to go really quickly, but I am feeling pretty impatient already! It was the first time I have driven the car without driver aids and it was good fun. It does feel quite different and of course there is some adapting to do in driving style, but in GP2 we didn't have driver aids, so I have some recent experience of it.

"We also did some work on aero and chassis developments for next year's car, it was a productive day and we will continue in the same way tomorrow."

Felipe Massa was third quickest, just more than one hundredth of a second faster than teammate world champion Kimi Raikkonen, while Pedro de la Rosa. who also tried out slicks, was fourth fastest overall.

Nelson Piquet Jr., who was sixth quickest, also had a difficult start to the day, running off the track within three minutes of the test starting to bring out the first red flag of the day. Later in the day, he also tried out slick tyres.

"It was frustrating to lose track time this morning, but the team did a great job to get the car ready again, and we got back on track before lunch and began the programme," said the Brazilian.

"I think we did a good job today, and the team managed to collect some important data."

Christian Klien won the battle of the Force India drivers, ending the day seventh quickest and almost three tenths of a second ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella. Both men tried out the slick tyres as well.

The other driver to run slicks was Nick Heidfeld, who spent the day focusing on a number of developments for 2009. He also brought a red flag out just before 11am when he stopped on track.

There were three other red flags. Sebastian Vettel stopped at 12.14pm, Mark Webber at 1.54pm and Nico Rosberg at 3.37pm.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:19.371   73
 2.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:19.421   80
 3.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:19.761   97
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:19.779   87
 5.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:19.887   62
 6.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:19.982   71
 7.  Klien         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:20.187   86
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.398   57
 9.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:20.470  102
10.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:20.487  118
11.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:20.523   54
12.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.533   75
13.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:20.671   66
14.  Zuber         Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:20.897  109
15.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.944   41
16.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21:068   67
17.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:21:076   74
18.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:21:184  103
19.  Kobayashi     Toyota               (B)  1:21:699  118
20.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:22.875   93

All Timing Unofficial