Klien goes quickest at Barcelona

The Austrian driver posted a quickest time of 1:17.567 after 43 laps at the wheel of the RB1 car, which was powered by Cosworth's V10 engine with next year's V8 software as the team wait to test their new car with the Ferrari unit.

Klien was joined by Robert Doornbos, who was today confirmed as Red Bull's third driver for the 2006 season. The Dutchman covered 51 laps on his debut with the team and finished over three seconds behind his teammate.

Alexander Wurz was the quickest of the drivers at the wheel of a car with a V8 engine, the McLaren tester enjoying a better session than yesterday, when he was hit by a gearbox problem that cut his running short.

Today, Wurz managed 69 laps while teammate Pedro de la Rosa, replacing Gary Paffett in the second MP4-20B, completed 64 on his way to the fourth fastest time.

Toyota's new TF106 made its track debut after being unveiled on Monday, with both Jarno Trulli and Ricardo Zonta putting it through its paces. The Brazilian driver was the fastest of the two, although Trulli had a fruitful day and covered 82 laps to finish as fifth quickest.

It was also the first time that Toyota tested with Bridgestone tyres.

The Toro Rosso team made their track debut under their new ownership, with Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi running this year's Red Bull chassis with a detuned Cosworth V10 engine.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg and WTCC champion Andy Priaulx kicked off the British squad's testing programme, both their cars fitted with Cosworth's new V8 engine and Bridgestone tyres.

Nick Heidfeld was again the only man in action for the BMW Sauber team, the German's day being cut shot after he suffered a leak in the fuel rail of his P86 V8 engine.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:17.567   43
 2.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:17.754   69
 3.  Zonta         Toyota               (B)  1:17.821   58
 4.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:18.066   64
 5.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:18.641   82
 6.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  1:19.756   58
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.456   58
 8.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:20.701   51
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:21.013   27
10.  Priaulx       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:25.055   18

All Timing Unofficial