Trulli quickest on final day at Barcelona

The Italian, whose Toyota team appeared to have made big progress over the winter break, set a best lap that was four tenths of a second ahead of Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard - although both men were likely to have been running in qualifying simulation mode.

Trulli's day was not without incident, however, as he stopped on track at 4.32pm to bring out the final of seven red flags that were needed over the course of the day.

"That was another positive day," said Trulli. "We made some progress in understanding the car and the set-up. Even though this is only a test, it's nice to see the mechanics and the guys smiling because today's times are good motivation.

"There is still room for improvement but this shows the team has done a good job over the winter tests. Of course we won't know the real running order until Melbourne but I'm quite confident for the season. It's definitely looking much better than last year so I'm happy for the team."

Nico Rosberg maintained Williams's strong and steady testing showing with the third best time, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber.

Nelson Piquet Jr. just edged out Renault teammate Fernando Alonso for the sixth best time, ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams and Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton, who brought out the first red flag of the day when he stopped at the end of the pitlane at 9.25am, was 10th fastest, ahead of Timo Glock, who caused two stoppages during the day.

Glock stopped at Turn 11 at 9.50am with a mechanical problem, and then went off at 12.29pm when he crashed and touched the tyre wall at Turn 8.

Giancarlo Fisichella maintained the encouraging start for Force India's new car to set the 12th best time, with Felipe Massa 13th overall as he spent the day running through engine mileage.

Robert Kubica was the fastest BMW Sauber runner in 14th, with teammate Nick Heidfeld 17th - having stopped with gearbox problems at Turn 10 in the morning and then causing another stoppage at 3.43pm.

The other red flag was caused by Sebastien Bourdais, who spun at Turn 1 at 3.01pm.

Honda duo Jenson Button and Alex Wurz finished the day at the bottom of the timesheets, with both men likely hoping that new aerodynamic parts due to be tried out in their private test at Jerez next week will help lift the performance of the RA108.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:20.801   83
 2.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.258   76
 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.293   77
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.309   87
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.368   91
 6.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:21.443  114
 7.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:21.454  128
 8.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.796  124
 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:21.933   80
10.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.011   88
11.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:22.155   49
12.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.233   90
13.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:22.286   49
14.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:22.299   93
15.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:22.465   79
16.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.521   97
17.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:22.624   61
18.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:24.154   82
19.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:24.275   73

All Timing Unofficial