Jerez 1: Massa times it right

On a day of varied weather conditions, with the day starting wet before drying out and then getting wet again, Massa's best lap came during the best of the day's conditions as his Sauber team worked on improving its databank of knowledge on it new tyres.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was Massa's closest challenger, making the most of an interim engine on the TF104B, as the team began experimenting with new aerodynamic solutions to cope with next year's technical regulation changes.

Williams' Mark Webber, using the hybrid car with new suspension and gearbox, continued to suffer minor troubles getting used to the team's braking system as he set the third quickest time, ahead of Enrique Bernoldi in the 2004 BAR running with levels of downforce to simulate next year's rules.

The day was marred by a few minor incidents, mainly caused by the mixed weather conditions. Ralf Schumacher damaged his Toyota after under-steering off the track at Turn Two early in the morning, although his team was able to fix the car for him to resume testing later in the afternoon.

Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer also went off the track at the same corner, although he managed to avoid the barriers, while Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Red Bull Racing car went off the track twice.

Felipe Massa (Sauber) 1m17.513s 59 laps
Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 1m19.287s 53 laps
Mark Webber (Williams) 1m20.171s 90 laps
Enrique Bernoldi (BAR) 1m21.370s 48 laps
Luca Badoer (Ferrari) 1m21.672s 60 laps
Takuma Sato (BAR) 1m21.724s 70 laps
Vitantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull Racing) 1m21.900 48 laps
Nick Heidfeld (Williams) 1m22.713s 87 laps
Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing) 1m22.731s 26 laps
Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) 1m22.836s 37 laps
Marc Gene (Ferrari) 1m23.191s 38 laps
Alan van der Merwe (BAR) 1m23.730s 27 laps
Christijan Albers (Jordan) 1m24.452s 33 laps
Robert Doornbos (Jordan) 1m25.291s 48 laps
Adam Carroll (BAR) 1m28.885s 4 laps