Vettel sets Jerez pace on first day

The Scuderia Toro Rosso's best lap of 1:19.844 meant he ended the day more than three tenths of a second clear of McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, with Ferrari tester Luca Badoer third quickest overall.

The Italian spent the day focusing on slick tyre work with 2009-levels of downforce.

"We completed our planned programme," said Badoer. "This morning it was important to go deeply into some technical elements to understand what happened last Sunday in Hockenheim.

"We picked up a lot of data, and that will continue over the next few days when we also test some solutions for the forthcoming races."

Most teams had elected to draft in their test drivers for the opening day of the four-day test, which is the last run before the summer break that takes place following the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Williams test driver Niko Hulkenberg - who caused the only red flag of the day - was fourth quickest, ahead of Red Bull Racing's Sebastien Buemi and Romain Grosjean in the Renault.

Jarno Trulli was the second driver to concentrate on slick tyre work, with his Toyota configured to 2009 regulations.

"We have made a good start and collected some interesting data for the development of next year's car," said Trulli. "Tomorrow I will begin work to prepare for Hungary."

The main talking point of the day, though, was the incident at BMW Sauber where a mechanic suffered an electric shock when he touched the car fitted with their Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS).

Klien did not complete any timed laps and, with the team unsure about the cause of the accident, BMW Sauber abandoned work on KERS for now.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:19.844   94
 2.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.179   80
 3.  Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:20.697   69
 4.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:20.953   58
 5.  Buemi         Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.997  110
 6.  Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:21.223   71
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:21.459   96
 8.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:21.596   84
 9.  Klien         BMW-Sauber           (B)  no time     3

All Timing Unofficial