Scuderia Ferrari made a clean sweep at the top of the timesheets with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen setting the fastest laps of the Bahrain International Circuit, as official Formula One testing resumed for a second three days of testing here today.

The  headlines,   however,  were   made  by   ING  Renault  F1   Team’s   new   Finnish   star  Heikki Kovalainen after a  heavy  impact with  the Turn  7  barriers brought an end to  his  day’s running and extensive damage to his R27 chassis.

As a matter of procedure Kovalainen’s accident brought out the ambulance but the impact- absorbing design of the car and BIC’s safety barriers ensured that the 25-year-old,  Renault’s replacement  for  double world champion Fernando Alonso, was unharmed.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher handed his  car over to test driver Franck Montagny after injuring his back. The German six-time race winner spun on track and hurt his back while bumping over the kerbs.  

Honda’s  running  was  made  by  test  drivers  Christian  Klien  and  James  Rossiter,  while  the  race drivers  Rubens  Barrichello  and Jenson Button  recovered  from  an  arduous  weekend.  The  team, accompanied by many of the attendant Formula One media, flew out from Bahrain on Saturday evening in order to travel to London’s Natural History Museum to reveal the team’s ‘sponsorless’ ecological  theme  for  2007.  The  team and media representatives then  flew  back  to  Bahrain  to continue running the car in its interim all-black testing livery for the remainder of the BIC test.

Elsewhere  in  the  paddock  Mark  Webber  revealed  his  new  red,  white  and  blue  crash  helmet design and triple world champion Sir Jackie  Stewart was a  prominent dignitary in the paddock.