Massa finishes Silverstone test on top

In a session that was again hit by rain at times, the Brazilian posted a best time of 1:20.805 to finish ahead of Williams' Nico Rosberg, over four tenths of a second slower than the Ferrari driver.

Massa covered a total of 87 laps despite causing three red flags during the day, the first one when he went off track early in the morning, the second when he suffered a suspension-related problem around 1pm and the final one over an hour later.

World champion Fernando Alonso was back in action following the United States Grand Prix, the Spaniard finishing as third fastest after 58 laps. Alonso caused a red flag and then spent over ninety minutes in his garage in the morning while his mechanics seemed to work on his car.

Renault's Nelsinho Piquet had the most productive day with a total of 108 laps on his way to the fourth quickest time of the session.

Jarno Trulli, fastest on Wednesday, completed a positive test for the Toyota team, the Italian winding up fifth after 70 laps.

"This week has gone pretty well for us," said Trulli. "We've concentrated mainly on preparation for next month's British Grand Prix here but we've also done work in preparation for the coming race at Magny-Cours next weekend. Today I did some tyre comparisons and put some mileage on some other systems on the car.

"We've been reasonably quick here over the last three days but all that matters is what you can achieve at the races. So far the season hasn't gone as well as we'd hoped but we will continue to push to get the best out of the package in the next few weeks.

"I'm looking forward to coming to race at Silverstone because I believe that we should perform well here. But we still have three weeks to go and anything can change before then, including the weather."

German Timo Glock wrapped up BMW-Sauber's preparations for the upcoming races, the test driver working on tyre testing, trying different suspension parts and doing aerodynamic work.

The German squad were pleased with the performance of their car thanks to the introduction of some small aero upgrades.

Spyker were the only team who worked with two drivers after Giedo van der Garde completed five laps in the afternoon after being hit by a throttle problem which seemed to let the team baffled.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:20.805   87
 2.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.274   98
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.284   58
 4.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:21.357  108
 5.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:21.703   70
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.933   69
 7.  Glock         BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:22.456   80
 8.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:23.049   65
 9.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  1:23.374   36
10.  van der Garde Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  1:25.865    5

All Timing Unofficial