Trulli leads the way at Barcelona

The Italian driver led a massive field of 18 drivers, as 10 of the current 11 teams continued with their preparations for the San Marino Grand Prix, which will mark the start of the European season next week.

The only team absent from Barcelona were Midland, testing at Silverstone.

Trulli worked at the wheel of the TF106, posting a best time of 1:14.522 after 81 laps. The Italian driver's day, however, was far from trouble-free as he caused two red flags during the session, the second one when his engine expired after midday.

Trulli was joined by teammate Ralf Schumacher, 12th quickest after an encouraging day of work.

"It was a successful day, we did as planned," Schumacher told autosport.com. "No problems today. We have learned a lot with the tyres in recent weeks and we are getting better at using them."

Trulli, still recuperating from an ear infection, finished ahead of world champion Fernando Alonso, who had a productive day in his Renault, covering 106 laps. Alonso caused one of the red flags of the day when he spun in the afternoon.

Michael Schumacher, third quickest, also caused a red flag when he lost his engine very early in the morning of his first day of work at Barcelona. The engine was the same Marc Gene had used on the previous two days of testing.

Schumacher tested the revised 248 F1 car that Ferrari plan to use at their home Grand Prix in Imola next week and showed promising pace.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest on his second day of work, the Finn covering 93 laps, ten less than teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, who joined the test today and finished down in 14th.

The BMW team also had both their racing drivers in action, with Nick Heidfeld setting the fifth fastest time while teammate Jacques Villeneuve was 13th after stopping on track with an engine problem.

The German squad, like most of the teams in action today at the Spanish circuit, focused mainly on tyre testing for the upcoming European races.

Honda drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were the busiest men on track, the Briton completing well over two Grand Prix distances - 150 laps.

Barrichello, working on brake testing, wound up 11th quickest after 133 laps. Between the two Honda drivers, they covered over 1,300 kms of testing.

"We ran through a series of set-ups, to learn the car not only specifically for this track but in general and see how I can adapt to the car," Barrichello told autosport.com.

"Also we did tyre testing for here and brake evaluation for Imola. There is nothing better to report than yesterday and today's times do not present the true picture."

Christian Klien and David Coulthard also covered good distance for the Red Bull team, despite the Austrian causing a red flag after an electronics-related problem in his car.

"Our best test of the year," Red Bull's chief test engineer Ian Morgan said. "We also evaluated some new aerodynamic parts with pleasing results and these should bring an improvement for the next race in Imola.

"It was also good for both drivers to get plenty of time to work on set-up and find a car balance that they are happy with."

Super Aguri managed only 22 laps today, after Takuma Sato was hit by a hydraulics problem the team were unable to fix. Sato will take to the track again tomorrow morning, before handing out his car to teammate Yuji Ide.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:14.522   81
 2.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  1:14.532  106
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  1:14.711   94
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:14.899   93
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:14.940   66
 6.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:15.105  112
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:15.209   82
 8.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:15.292  150
 9.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:15.299  101
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:15.347  101
11.  Barrichello   Honda                (M)  1:15.388  133
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:15.410   73
13.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)  1:15.547   97
14.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:15.686  103
15.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:15.727   86
16.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:16.019  108
17.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  1:16.599  102
18.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:19.826   22

All Timing Unofficial