Kovalainen leads the way at Valencia

Kovalainen, who today focused on a big tyre programme for Michelin, covered a massive 141 laps to finish three tenths of a second ahead of teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, who also had a busy day covering 119 laps.

Both men enjoyed an almost trouble-free day with their R26 cars.

"This was one of our best days of the winter," said chief test engineer Christian Silk. "We did more than 1000 km with only minor problems on both cars, and the R26 seems very competitive.

"Heikki completed his programme of tyre and brake testing without any problems, and we found some very interesting directions with the Michelin tyres.

"As for Giancarlo, his race distance was interrupted by a minor hydraulic problem, but he ran trouble-free this afternoon as he worked on set-up and tyre development."

Juan Pablo Montoya split the Renault drivers with his McLaren MP4-21, the Colombian causing two red flags during the day, the first one when he went off track and the second when his car stopped.

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fifth fastest in the other MP4-21.

The third red flag of the day was caused by Williams driver Nico Rosberg, who stopped on track with an apparent mechanical problem.

Scot David Coulthard was the only Red Bull Racing driver in action today as the team shipped the other car to the factory to be fitted with the new bodywork package. Coulthard tried the revised package for the first time and finished in sixth place.

German Adrian Sutil made his debut at the wheel of a Formula One car when he tested the hybrid EJ15B for the Midland team. The test driver worked alongside Dutchman Christijan Albers, who continued putting miles in the new MF16 machine and finished down in eighth.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Kovalainen    Renault              (M)  1:10.618  140
 2.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:10.657   50
 3.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:10.938  118
 4.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:11.139   78
 5.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:11.174   66
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:11.217   73
 7.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:12.233  119
 8.  Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:12.778   46
 9.  Sutil         MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:17.912   27

All Timing Unofficial