Doornbos fastest in testing

Doornbos, who also competed in several rounds of this season's British F3 series, set a best time on 1m32.33s around the Spanish track, catching the attention of Arden team boss Christian Horner in the process.

"I was extremely impressed," said Horner. "He built up to it and then put it all together on a new set of tyres. He's potentially very good."

Arden also ran British Formula Renault driver James Rossiter, who was seventh fastest despite his lack of experience. "It was a big jump up for James coming out of Formula Renault, but he acquitted himself well," said Horner. "We'll see how he goes tomorrow."

Rosberg, who was just 0.24s slower than Doornbos, drove for the Italian Coloni team alongside Norbert Siedler, who set the fifth fastest time. Tony Schmidt was third quickest for the new Ma-Con team, ahead of Durango driver Raffaele Giammaria.

British Formula 3 ace Nelson Piquet Jr. did a few warm-up laps for Arden at the end of the day, as a precursor to a full days testing for the team tomorrow. Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre ran for Arden in a private test yesterday.

Robert Doornbos Arden 1m32.33s
Nico Rosberg Coloni 1m32.57s
Tony Schmidt Ma-Con 1m33.24s
Raffaele Giammaria Durango 1m33.75s
Norbert Siedler Coloni 1m33.97s
Toshihiro Kaneishi Ma-Con 1m34.31s
James Rossiter Arden 1m34.57s
Ferdinando Monfardini Durango 1m36.75s