Brazil’s Felipe Massa once again put Scuderia Ferrari at the top of the timesheets on the fifth official day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. The new Ferrari F2007 recorded a best overall time of 1:30.640s early in the day’s running as the Ferrari racer lapped the 5.14km home of the Bahrain Grand Prix 100 times, despite an apparent misfire which led to one session-stopping breakdown on track.

It was another stop-start day of running for the 16 cars as the teams continue to hone their race setups and iron out any faults in the systems on their brand new cars. Vitantonio Liuzzi posted Scuderia Toro Rosso’s most impressive performance in the morning session, but unfortunately was forced to sit the afternoon session out after technical problems beset his Ferrari-engined  STR2.

“In the morning everything was fine, then we had a problem with the car and I couldn't really drive in the afternoon,” Liuzzi explained. “It's a shame as I did only 47 laps and it's important for us to get a lot of kilometres here in preparation for the GP. Tomorrow Scott is driving, so I'll do some training - probably cycling or running...”

Conversely Heikki Kovalainen was on the sidelines in the morning while the extensive damage to his Renault was put right following yesterday’s Turn 7 crash, but the young Finn made up for lost time by pounding the track 30 times in the afternoon session to log the sixth fastest time of the day.

Ralf  Schumacher  eased  himself  back  into  action  for  Toyota  after  injuring  his  back  while bouncing  over  the  kerbs  in yesterday’s  test,  putting in a  dozen  laps  in the morning session before rattling off a further 73 laps in the afternoon. Team mate Jarno Trulli suffered a spin that triggered mechanical faults in the sister car.

1. Massa – Ferrari – 1:30.625 (100 laps)

2. Hamilton – McLaren Mercedes – 1:31.175 (57 laps)

3. Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1:31.472 (94 laps)

4. Fisichella – Renault – 1:31.959 (110 laps)

5. De La Rosa – McLaren Mercedes – 1:31.973 (52 laps)

6. Kovalainen – Renault – 1:32.057 (29 laps)

7. Heidfeld – BMW – 1:32.250 (72 laps)

8. Button – Honda – 1:32.303 (74 laps)

9. Liuzzi – Toro Rosso – 1:32.354 (47 laps)

10. Barrichello – Honda – 1:32.638 (60 laps)

11. Kubica – BMW – 1:32.649 (56 laps)

12. Sato – Super AguriF1 – 1:32.833 (100 laps)

13. Schumacher – Toyota – 1:33.050 (84 laps)

14. Coulthard – Red Bull Racing – 1:33.151 (49 laps)

15. Webber – Red Bull Racing – 1:33.229 (50 laps)

16. Trulli – Toyota – 1:33.387 (40 laps)