Renault dominate final day at Barcelona

The pair were comfortably at the top of the time sheet on an incident-filled day at the Circuit de Catalunya. Kovalainen's best lap of 1:13.926 seconds was almost four tenths faster than Fisichella's.

Jarno Trulli continued to show the improved form of Toyota to set the third quickest time, four tenths behind Fisichella, and he was pretty happy with the way his test had gone.

"We were mainly working on new tyres," the Italian told autosport.com. "We did a huge amount of work in terms of set-up and changed several things - like dampers, mechanical set-ups. And I also found a big improvement in myself, which is why I was quick yesterday and also today."

Jenson Button continued to work on tyres and set-up work, as Honda Racing aim to find a solution to the tyre heat issues that marred their performance in the Australian Grand Prix.

Button, who was testing a new front win and bodywork parts, told autosport.com: "I tried new aero parts and the balance of the car was OK, but it was a bit difficult with the wind.

"But in the end, it turned out to be OK, we did many laps, so I'm quite happy with that."

Teammate Rubens Barrichello, who was eighth fastest overall, had to end his running early because of pain caused by a suspected trapped nerve in his shoulder.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, fifth fastest, was upbeat about how his test had gone, as Ferrari worked on the package of improvements that they plan to introduce at the San Marino Grand Prix.

Schumacher said: "We have worked on the aerodynamics, on the tyres and the set-up. We have sort of optimised our package."

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, who was sixth quickest ahead of teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, was another driver suffering from a suspected trapped nerve - as the high G-forces of the new generation cars appeared to be taking their toll around the fast sweeps of the Catalan track.

Montoya brought out two red flags over the course of the day - going off the track at 2:30pm and then stopping on the main straight at 16:35pm with suspected mechanical problems.

Jacques Villeneuve was BMW's leading driver in tenth spot on the time sheet, after bringing out the red flags at 5:00pm when he stopped out on the track, while teammate Robert Kubica had an incident-filled day - going off the track three times.

"It was an interesting day, but we have to tune up the car more next time," Kubica said. "I did set-up work and tyre testing, but hopefully I will get the car more tuned in the next test."

The Polish test driver's incidents were nothing compared to Mark Webber, however, who had a fraught day in the Williams.

The Australian had a sizeable accident at Turn 4 in the morning after clouting the tyre barriers. While the team attempted to fix his car, he hopped into Alexander Wurz's car.

After his chassis was finally fixed later in the day and he got back in it, Webber then suffered a tyre failure at Turn 1 - damaging his car once again. Bridgestone are planning to investigate the cause of the burst left rear tyre.

"It was a shit day today, but the first few days were good," Webber told autosport.com. "We learnt a lot about the tyres - we tried Bridgestone's new compounds, and they were very good.

"So it was a lot better than the past; I had a good test."

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time      Laps
 1.  Kovalainen    Renault             (M)  1:13.926  132
 2.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:14.302   90
 3.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:14.686   86
 4.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:14.708  131
 5.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:14.734   78
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:14.752  100
 7.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:14.878   30
 8.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:15.018   54
 9.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.217   76
10.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:15.321   98
11.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:15.338   83
12.  Davidson      Honda               (M)  1:15.583   69
13.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:15.791   97
14.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:16.041   67
15.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:17.752   21
16.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:19.512   13
17.  Ide           Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  No time