Old Ferrari again on top at Barcelona

Although the new Ferrari 248 arrived at the track in the early afternoon prior to its scheduled run on Thursday, Massa focused exclusively on more tyre and engine work in the F2004 to comfortably head the times.

Behind him, Renault's Fernando Alonso was second fastest, just more than half a second adrift of Massa, but all eyes were on the pace of the third fastest new Honda RA106, which was both quick and reliable on its first day of running.

Jenson Button, who ended the day just three tenths behind Alonso, managed to complete 71 laps during a fairly trouble-free run. The only blight on Honda's day was when Rubens Barrichello stopped out on the track in the early afternoon.

The Brazilian eventually set the fifth fastest time.

With Giancarlo Fisichella fourth quickest for Renault, sixth quickest Nick Heidfeld continued to shine in the BMW-Sauber, although his running was hit late on by a suspected mechanical problem in the final hour of testing.

Jarno Trulli and Olivier Panis continued to put miles on the Toyota TF106 as they ended the day seventh and eighth fastest, while Juan Pablo Montoya completed another 80 valuable laps in the McLaren MP4-21, which proved to be on the pace despite being relatively slow through the speed-trap on the main straight.

David Coulthard ended the day a disappointing 10th overall for Red Bull Racing as the team continued to run with the wide openings in their sidepods to aid with cooling of their Ferrari engine.

The slowest man overall was BMW-Sauber third driver Robert Kubica, who was getting up to speed in the team's interim car.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver      Team            Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Massa       Ferrari          (B)  1:15.664   67
 2.  Alonso      Renault          (M)  1:16.200   94
 3.  Button      Honda            (M)  1:16.578   71
 4.  Fisichella  Renault          (M)  1:16.728   84
 5.  Barrichello Honda            (M)  1:16.737   51
 6.  Heidfeld    BMW-Sauber       (M)  1:17.046   61
 7.  Trulli      Toyota           (B)  1:17.068  109
 8.  Panis       Toyota           (B)  1:17.422   90
 9.  Montoya     McLaren-Mercedes (M)  1:17.481   80
10.  Coulthard   Red Bull-Ferrari (M)  1:17.582   76
11.  Speed       Toro Rosso       (M)  1:18.092   85
12.  Paffett     McLaren-Mercedes (M)  1:18.247   65
13.  Kubica      BMW-Sauber       (M)  1:20.016   62

All Timing Unofficial