Double world champion Mika Hakkinen made his much anticipated Formula One return here at the Barcelona Circuit today when he climbed back into the cockpit of a McLaren Mercedes Formula One car for the first time since he retired at the end of the 2001 season, completing a total of 365km.

The Flying Finn’s times were well off the pace set by the other cars on the Spanish track, three seconds off the leading time set by Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer, however this was expected as he had to re-acclimatize with the car, and the track, more so as the MP4-21 had undergone a lot of changes compared to the MP4-16 that took him to the final win of his F1 career.

"It has been an exciting day for me and I have really enjoyed the opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car after a five year break, made even more special as it was with Team McLaren Mercedes that I won my two World Championships with. I spent the morning really acclimatising to the environment of the cockpit again and just getting to grips with driving a 2006 car, I didn't expect to be quick straight away, and Barcelona is of course a hard track on both the car and driver.”

“It took several laps before I was up to speed, but we were all expecting this to be the case. Although it was great fun today I also had to do some serious work for the team, as any feedback I could give them from today's experience will help them with their preparations for the 2007 season. As a result I was really pushing to try and do the best job that I could to assist them in any way possible. We have done some good work today and got some great results and I am really grateful to the team for this opportunity and the mechanics for working so hard for me."