Webber goes fastest at Barcelona

The teams' progress, however, was hindered by the rain which hit the Spanish track in the afternoon, with none of the drivers present completing a lot of mileage.

All the fastest times where set in the morning, with Webber posting a 1:17.699 to finish on top with his Williams FW28.

The Australian driver, who caused one of the day's red flags when he stopped early in the afternoon, completed 45 laps.

His teammate Nico Rosberg only set a time late in the session when the track was wet, having spent the morning practising starts in the second FW28. Rosberg caused two red flags, one of them when his engine blew up.

Kimi Raikkonen continued to show the improving pace of the McLaren MP4-21 as he finished in second, less than a tenth behind Webber. Raikkonen, alongside Midland's Tiago Monteiro, was the busiest man on track with 59 laps completed.

Raikkonen's teammate Juan Pablo Montoya covered just 22 laps before he suffered a gearbox problem in the morning.

Robert Doornbos kicked off the Red Bull's testing programme at the wheel of the RB2 car, the Dutchman setting the third quickest laptime, ahead of Monteiro in the only Midland MF16 on track.

The Super Aguri team did not enjoy a very productive first public day of testing after Takuma Sato could only manage eight laps. Sato suffered a hydraulics problem after three laps in the morning and his team spent a lot of time fixing it.

The Japanese driver returned to the track late in the afternoon, but spun five laps later and, given the conditions, he didn't go back out. His teammate Yuji Ide is scheduled to test tomorrow.

"The priority of this test was to begin track testing of the SA05 systems - including electronics, hydraulics and brakes," said Mark Preston, the team's chief technical officer. "Although our reliability was not great today, it is the reason why we are here, to test and sort these kinds of problems out.

"This morning's running was cut short due to a small hydraulic problem which was soon rectified. However, in the rain-drenched afternoon, Taku spun at the hairpin, with no damage to the car, while experimenting with new traction control software.

"This afternoon's running was cut short by a similar problem to the one we had this morning. We will now be working overnight and are hoping for a successful day's running tomorrow when we start our tyre programme for Bahrain."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:17.699   45
 2.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:17.790   59
 3.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  1:18.439   46
 4.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)  1:18.717   59
 5.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:18.875   22
 6.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:30.244    8
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:37.188   16

All Timing Unofficial