Imola 1: Alonso sets pace

Along with team-mate Jarno Trulli, the Spaniard spent the day working on set-up and suspension work, and also conducted some Michelin tyre work in the afternoon. Alonso outpaced Trulli by 0.256s, although the Italian was running Renault's Melbourne-spec engine.

"A pleasing first day at Imola," said Pat Symonds, Renault's executive director of engineering. "We have completed a total 800km today with the two cars and made good progress with our programme. We experienced no reliability problems and both drivers are reporting the new car to be a good improvement over the kerbs relative to its predecessor."

Sauber's Felipe Massa set the third fastest time, albeit nearly two seconds off Alonso's pace. The Brazilian worked on brake developments and aerodynamic configuration. Giancarlo Fisichella ended the day in fourth, 0.303s slower than his team-matew after a day spent working on damper settings.

Jordan was the third and final of the teams present at the Italian track, for the first time running two EJ14s for Nick Heidfeld and new boy Giorgio Pantano.



"[Imola is] a track which brings out many of the challenges that we may see at the first races of the season in Melbourne and Sepang," explained James Robinson, Jordan's head of race and test engineering. "We have been learning about those issues and how to address them today, which is clearly productive at this stage. Now that we have over 2,500km on the EJ14, tomorrow we hope to be able to start looking at performance criteria."

Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m20.480s 78
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m20.736s 85
Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas B 1m22.028s 69
Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas B 1m22.331s 62
Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford B 1m22.408s 61
Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford B 1m24.274s 61

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin