Piquet fastest again at Silverstone

The Brazilian, who finished runner-up in the GP2 championship this year, focused on set-up work. Teammate Heikki Kovalainen concentrated on short and long runs while the team finalised their tyre selection for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The pair were separated by less than a tenth of a second at the end of what is Renault's last scheduled test of the season. The team do have the option of testing again after Japan if they choose to, but it is not currently scheduled.

Third fastest Lewis Hamilton ended his first run with McLaren on a high as he outpaced teammate Pedro de la Rosa - the man he is potentially fighting with over a race seat at the team next season.

The GP2 champion was just over a tenth of a second faster than de la Rosa, who was focusing on tyre work, but the ranking will be a confidence boost ahead of his next test at Jerez after Japan.

Hamilton's adaptation included two offs. In the morning he ran off the road at the complex after locking up, while in the afternoon he went off again at the Complex but did not damage the car.

Ralf Schumacher was fifth fastest for Toyota, more than a second slower than de la Rosa, with sixth fastest Olivier Panis taking part in one of his last outings in an F1 car. It ended with a spectacular engine failure just after 3:00pm.

Alexander Wurz put 97 more laps on the interim Williams-Toyota car to end the test more than three seconds off Piquet's best time. Despite an engine failure late in the afternoon, the team were happy to have completed so many laps.

Test team manager Mike Condliffe said: "Given the number of new components on the car, it's been very positive all in all."

Takuma Sato set about trying out a new aerodynamic package for Super Aguri, but not all the parts were ready. However, the new front wing solution has left him confident of a step forward in performance.

"We have found some good tyres, which go well with the aero package," he said. "I am happy with what we have."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time       Laps
 1.  Piquet        Renault           (M)  1:19.510    84
 2.  Kovalainen    Renault           (M)  1:19.585   102
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.153    50
 4.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.277   111
 5.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (B)  1:21.390    54
 6.  Panis         Toyota            (B)  1:22.214    83
 7.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota   (B)  1:22.958    97
 8.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda (B)  1:23.186    85