Montagny fastest, Gene shines at Jerez

Although outgoing Renault test driver Frank Montagny was fastest overall in the Renault, running a detuned V10 engine, Gene was only two tenths adrift of that time and almost half a second clear of Anthony Davidson, the next V8 runner.

Narain Karthikeyan boosted his chances of securing the third drive at Williams when he outpaced new signing Nico Rosberg on his first day in the car to set the fifth fastest time.

The Indian, who is vying with Nicolas Kiesa for the testing job, was less than two tenths slower than fourth fastest Davidson despite a spin and a mechanical problem that brought out two of the day's red flags.

Pedro de la Rosa was sixth overall, ahead of Ralf Schumacher in the new Toyota. Former Toyota test driver Ryan Briscoe, who had been called up at the last minute after Olivier Panis was forced to withdraw from the test on medical grounds, assisted Schumacher.

"It's the first time I have been in an F1 car for a little while," Briscoe told autosport.com. "I was testing in Miami on Monday when I got a call at lunchtime from Toyota asking me if I wanted to test for them.

"I said: 'Yes, that would be great' and when I asked when they told me Wednesday and Thursday! I had to get a flight straightaway."

Briscoe caused the first red flag of the day when he spun off on cold tyres less than an hour into the test, and also the last red flag of the day when his engine blew up at 4.20pm.

The only other major incident of the day was when Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer spun off at the final hairpin following a right front suspension failure. He hit the tyre wall with the right front and spun around before ending up backwards against the wall - without major damage though.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Montagny      Renault              (M)  1:19.468  103
 2.  Gene          Ferrari              (B)  1:19.687   82
 3.  Kovalainen    Renault              (M)  1:19.809  118
 4.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:20.144  103
 5.  Karthikeyan   Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.291   49
 6.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.369  102
 7.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:20.454   65
 8.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:20.581   70
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.644   62
10.  Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:20.845   66
11.  Rossiter      Honda                (M)  1:20.978   39
12.  Briscoe       Toyota               (B)  1:21.211   81
13.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:21.252   78
14.  Biagi         MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:21.878   90
15.  Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:23.203   52

All Timing Unofficial