Under consistently warm weather conditions throughout the day with increased windy spells in the afternoon, it was the Red Bull of Mark Webber at the top of the timesheets on the opening day of the final pre season test here in Barcelona today.

The Milton Keynes based squad worked through their scheduled program which included a race weekend simulation within one day, as they ran through procedures for P3, qualifying and a race. There was a small reliability issue with the Aussie racer stopping on track due to a gearbox oil alarm going off, however the problem was soon rectified.

“Today was always planned as a race weekend simulation day, so we did some testing along with P3 and qualifying in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon,” said Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering. “Everything went very well up until halfway through the race simulation, when something in the data made us decide to stop the car on track. It was nothing major though and we got the car repaired and back out until the end of the session. It went well today, apart from that small reliability issue.”

Mark managed a total of 109 laps, twenty seven more than the second quickest man on track, Williams rookie Nico Hülkenberg who finished the day almost a full second slower than the Red Bull.

Next up was the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who kicked off the team’s programme this week by spending the majority of his day focusing on set-up work with the MGP W01 car over longer runs alongside working on the team's race weekend procedures including qualifying and pit stop simulations. Nico completed a total of 107 laps.

"We had a productive day today and we were able to learn a great deal from doing so many laps. We're making good use of the testing time that we have and I'm feeling quite confident and comfortable in the car,” he said. “Aerodynamically the car will change quite significantly for the first race in Bahrain so we're not focusing on the details but on general set-up work and seeing how the car behaves over long runs. Working through the race weekend procedures and pit stops is also very useful in our preparations for Bahrain."

Pedro de la Rosa was up next for Sauber on his home ground where he carried out a lot of set-up work including an aero test for Bahrain.

 “Today we have been concentrating on different mechanical set-ups and different downforce levels in preparation for the Bahrain Grand Prix,” the driver said. “We are not satisfied with the car’s balance yet, but we have recorded a great deal of useful data which will help us further improve it.”

Fifth fastest was the McLaren of reigning world champion, Jenson Button, who was concentrating primarily on mechanical and aerodynamic set-up work. Despite not setting any headline laptimes, the team declared itself pleased with progress, gaining a greater understanding of the behaviour of the Bridgestone tyre over a long run.

Tonio Liuzzi was sixth fastest for Force India, the Italian racer taking advantage fo the much improved weather conditions to complete a total of 65 laps without major issue. Several red flag periods interrupted some of the team's planned running, however he was still pleased with his best lap of 1:24.064. With track conditions relatively 'green' Tonio's programme mainly focused on pit stop practice and drills and general set-up work.

“Once we realised the track was really green and not good enough to conduct some useful testing, we concentrated on set-up and pit stop practice to get back into the rhythm of a race weekend,” the driver explained. “Overall it was quite OK but we concentrated a lot on the pit stop practice to get the guys back up to speed. Tomorrow will be where we move to look at performance and long runs so it should be a more representative day regarding the pace of the new car.”

Fernando Alonso was behind the wheel of the Ferrari for their first day here today, the Spanish racer working mainly on overall development of the car, beginning to use a few new aerodynamic components. An electrical problem led to a long stop in the garage in the morning, while the afternoon programme was worked through according to plan. A total of 74 laps were completed, the quickest in a time of 1.24.170, good enough for seventh fastest overall.

Renault were up next with new rookie racer Vitaly Petrov finishing eighth after a busy day of work for the French based squad. The day’s program included practice pit stops in the morning and set-up work in the afternoon, which went very well.

This was the first chance for the team’s pit crew to practice with a running car at the circuit without refuelling and there were no procedural problems. Unfortunately they suffered a hydraulic problem in the early afternoon, which meant they had to change part of the hydraulic system which limited the days running.

“The track conditions were pretty good today and it was nice not to have to drive in the rain! The day went quite well and we did a lot of pit-stop practice to begin with and then some set-up work, which was useful,” the Russian driver said.

Toro Rosso’s Spanish racer Jaime Alguersuari was next up followed by Virgin Racing’s Lucas di Grassi. The team suffered a few smaller issues early in the morning but then Lucas was finally able to take to the track in earnest. He completed 31 laps before a spin at turn nine brought an end to the day’s running and this meant he was unable to improve on his best time of the morning - a 1:27.057. The early conclusion spells a long night for the team as they replace damaged parts ready for Timo to join the program tomorrow.

“We are continuing to debug the car hydraulics and making good progress in our understanding of the issue,” explained Nick Wirth, Technical Director of Virgin Racing. “Unfortunately when we were running some experimental control settings on the car, which were adversely affecting its handling, this caught Lucas out on the entry to turn nine resulting in a spin and contact with the barrier. We’re going to need to spend the time before tomorrow replacing some broken suspension and wings. We should be back on track tomorrow morning when we hope to really start building up our mileage.”

It was another satisfactory day Lotus Racing as Fairuz Fauzy completed another 76 laps to finish last overall ont eh timesheets. The Malaysian based squad completed all its objectives for the day and are now looking forward to seeing Jarno Trulli take over driving duties tomorrow and Saturday.

“It was a very productive day - 76 laps with no mechanical worries on the car,” explained Mike Gascoyne. “In the morning we conducted some engine LAMDA running which we completed successfully. We ran through a series of system set up checks, completed our first starts and evaluated a number of other control systems on the car, as well as monitoring temperatures and pressures throughout the car. All in all this was a successful day both on the track and we ticked off a lot of behind the scenes tasks ahead of the first race. Fairuz did a very good job today, with no mistakes, and we were able to complete our whole program.”