Massa quickest again with F2004

But it was Brazilian Rubens Barrichello who shone in the new Honda RA106, setting the quickest time of those driving 2006-spec cars.

Barrichello just edged Italian Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella by 0.004 seconds as several drivers ran with their times closely matched at the Spanish track. Barrichello led a group of eight cars split by less than one second.

"It has been good day," said Barrichello. "I am really learning. I am far from the limit and the car is far from the limit but I was playing with the set-up, changing one to the other to see how the car is. The car is very responsive and predictable too.

"I was slow to get going in the morning because of the temperature but in the afternoon we managed to make the turn in more predictable. There are several set-ups we found. I am quite happy with that. Also I had another seat flown in and this is better."

Massa was the only man capable of lapping in less than 76 seconds, but the Ferrari driver was at the wheel of the F2004 car, although powered by a V8 engine.

Ferrari's new 248 F1 machine tested alongside its rivals for the first time after being launched last Tuesday, with Michael Schumacher doing the driving. The German seven-time champion managed 78 laps with the new car.

BMW also had an encouraging day, with Nick Heidfeld placing the new F1.06 in fourth position on the timesheets, less than two tenths behind Barrichello.

Both Heidfeld and teammate Robert Kubica, driving the hybrid car, focused mainly on tyre testing while the Polish test driver also continued acclimatising to the demands of Formula One cars.

"Overall, the test in Barcelona was very positive for our team," said Willy Rampf, BMW's technical direcotr. "The reliability of the F1.06 is already on a good level, which enabled us to complete over 1,500 kilometres with the new car during the four days.

"We could collect a lot of data and learned more about the set-up of the F1.06. In addition, I am very satisfied with the debut of Robert in our team. Over two days, he didn't make the smallest error, and he was able to improve constantly. On top of that he is also able to give valuable feedback to the engineers."

Fisichella and teammate Fernando Alonso ran different programmes today, the Italian completing shorter stints while the World Champion carried out a Grand Prix simulation, with pitstops included.

Despite a spin, the Spaniard had a very good day's work and covered 109 laps.

David Coulthard gave his Red Bull team something to smile about after finishing around half a second behind Barrichello, but the Scot covered just 43 laps as the team worked on trying to solve their cooling problems.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were ninth and tenth quickest as the Japanese squad worked on a massive tyre testing programme for Bridgestone.

Kimi Raikkonen finally got back to work after 102 days outside the cockpit of his McLaren, but the Finn and his team did not enjoy a very good day, finishing at the bottom of the times.

Raikkonen, who spent a long time in this pits while his mechanics worked on the new MP4-21, covered 65 laps on his way to the 12th quickest time of the day.

His teammate Pedro de la Rosa, meanwhile, was slowest in the MP4-20 after his Mercedes engine let go early in the session.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:15.970  73
 2.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  1:16.361  66
 3.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:16.365  68
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:16.549  89
 5.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:16.739  81
 6.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  1:16.754 109
 7.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:16.885  43
 8.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1:16.907  78
 9.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:17.250  85
10.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:17.506  71
11.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso           (M)  1:17.590  93
12.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:17.741  65
13.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:17.992  93
14.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:18.258  47

All Timing Unofficial