Massa tops the times at Jerez

The Brazilian, whose car had been fitted with an air-restricted V10 for the first time, outpaced Ricardo Zonta in the V8-powered TF106 by almost a whole second.

"I tried out several set-ups with controlled tyres," Zonta told autosport.com. "We have to understand how the car responds, especially with weight distribution we have found some good directions already."

The Brazilian also joined several of his colleagues in saying V8-engined cars are less demanding to drive.

"It is less physical to drive, so drivers will be closer to the limit and also it means you have more time to correct. I am used to the V8 now but if I ever drive a V10 again I will probably feel the difference.

"Pedro (de la Rosa) told me there was so much power when he drove the V10 last week after driving so many days with V8."

Gary Paffett put an early morning spin on cold tyres behind him to set the third quickest time for McLaren, boosting his hopes of securing a test deal with the team by outpacing Pedro de la Rosa.

The team spent their day focusing on long runs to get valuable mileage on their V8 engines, although Paffett suffered a mechanical problem late in the day and stopped out on the track.

"We are just doing lots of lots of mileage on the engine," de la Rosa told autosport.com "I am used to the engine now, and in fact it is so easy to drive with this engine.

"We are still on controlled tyres but we are learning lots of different directions with these tyres. Maybe we can go onto a compound test tomorrow. But we have a lot to learn from the engine and the tyres at the moment. So far no problems."

Nick Heidfeld continued BMW-Sauber's preparations with the fifth quickest time, having a wild run across the grass at one point, while Toyota development driver Franck Perera had a pretty incident-filled day.

He went off wide at the right-hander before the chicane and kissed the barriers just after 12pm, before spinning off for the second time just moments before the test ended.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:19.070   91  *
 2.  Zonta         Toyota               (B)  1:20.061   92
 3.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.226   66
 4.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.318   84
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:20.794   85
 6.  Perera        Toyota               (B)  1:21.337   60

(*) V10 engine

All Timing Unofficial