Raikkonen sets blistering Valencia pace

The McLaren's driver lap of 1:09.423 was over half a second faster than the previous best, set by Raikkonen himself earlier this year.

The Finn, at the wheel of the MP4-21, enjoyed a trouble-free day and covered a total of 120 laps, five more than teammate Pedro de la Rosa.

Raikkonen was happy with the week's work, but was still cautious about McLaren's form for Bahrain.

"It has been a good week," Raikkonen told autosport.com. "At least we did not break down and we did some mileage. We did what we could, so we'll see. We still have work to do and I really don't know how well we will do in the race. We will see."

De la Rosa worked with the hybrid car fitted with a V10 engine to complete a fruitful day for his team, who wrapped up their preparations for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Anthony Davidson was again the busiest man on track for his Honda team, the Briton managing 143 laps in the RA106 on his way to the third fastest time. Davidson will complete the Valencia test tomorrow, when he will shake down the third Honda chassis to be used in Bahrain.

David Coulthard returned to action following his back injury and although the Scot's day was not entirely trouble-free, he covered 76 laps for his Red Bull team.

Toyota drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli began a two-day test for the Japanese squad, but the German's programme was hindered when he stopped on track with a smoking engine.

Schumacher managed just 59 laps but still outpaced Trulli, sixth quickest.

"It was a good test," Schumacher told autosport.com. "It looks as though we are going in the right direction. We have a different [race] format, which requires a good pit strategy, and with the V8 now the performance is as good as it used to be.

"The programme ran as planned. I am happy with the progress and although we have not run as much as we would like, less than normal because of the small problems we had, I think we are ready.

"I am ready to race to see really where we are and everyone else is. It's difficult to judge at the moment."

The second red flag of the day was caused by Williams test driver Alex Wurz, slowest today on the final day of testing for the British squad. The Austrian lost a lot of time while his team fixed a problem with a sensor.

"We lost lots of time when they had to fix but it was good test," he told autosport.com. "But now we are racing. We have done what we could here so, see you in Bahrain."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:09.423  120
 2.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:09.852  115
 3.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:10.301  143
 4.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:11.078   76
 5.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:11.129   59
 6.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:12.159   80
 7.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:12.257   70

All Timing Unofficial