Schumacher shines at Jerez

The Ferrari driver, getting his first taste of V8 power in a modified version of the F2005, outpaced his new teammate Felipe Massa in a V10-powered car by just more than one tenth of a second with a quick lap in the afternoon.

It was an impressive performance from both Schumacher and Ferrari, especially considering they were running with the less powerful V8 power-unit. The only blot on Schumacher's performance was an early morning spin, as he got himself re-acquainted with F1 machinery.

Behind Massa, Renault duo Franck Montagny and Heikki Kovalainen were third and fourth quickest in their restricted V10-powered cars, while Anthony Davidson in the Honda concept car was fifth fastest overall.

Davidson, who has been running with a black helmet because fellow tester Adam Carroll has had to borrow his, was significantly almost one second slower than Schumacher despite running with the same engine configuration.

Ricardo Zonta in the Toyota was sixth fastest as he claimed the team had made progress with their understanding of Bridgestone tyres.

"We learned a lot in setting up suspension and how it works with the tyres," he told autosport.com . "It was a good test and the only problem was that in the afternoon the track conditions were not so consistent."

Fellow Toyota test driver Olivier Panis, who was ninth fastest, was equally upbeat as he completed his first full-day of testing since returning from illness.

"The car is working well and the tyres are getting better," he said. "The engine is much better than when I tested last time. We did lots of laps and we are going in a good direction."

Seventh fastest Juan Pablo Montoya's day was hit by an engine failure, while Williams continued to endure a troubled time with their Cosworth-powered car.

Nico Rosberg brought out the first red flag of the day when he was left stranded with an engine failure in the morning, while Mark Webber was slowest overall having spun off the track after suffering a suspected gearbox problem.

Nick Heidfeld's running with BMW-Sauber ended early after the team discovered a problem with a defective exhaust pipe in the afternoon, which had burned the back of the car too much for it to be repaired at the track.

He had been working on engine evaluation and a tyre programme with Michelin in the morning.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1:18.953   67
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:19.060   97  *
 3.  Montagny      Renault              (M)  1:19.066   20  *
 4.  Kovalainen    Renault              (M)  1:19.100  119  *
 5.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:19.877  114
 6.  Zonta         Toyota               (B)  1:20.035  106
 7.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.168   48
 8.  Carroll       Honda                (M)  1:20.170   93
 9.  Panis         Toyota               (B)  1:20.342   93
10.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:20.492  117
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.597   46
12.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:20.700   38
13.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:21.453   25

(*) V10 engine

All Timing Unofficial