Eight teams ventured to Spain to work on their 2009 cars, with the young German driver comfortably quickest on a cool day which also brought a rain shower in the early afternoon.
Sebastian Vettel’s time of one minute 19.055 seconds around the 4.423-km track was 1.3 secs quicker than the second fastest driver, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
The Brazilian’s day was not without its problems - an off-track excursion for Massa seeing him sidelined for part of the afternoon.
Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi was another who impressed, the team’s reserve driver putting his TF109 up into third place.
“This morning was my first real chance to try out the TF109 in dry conditions,” the Japanese driver said.
“From the first run the car felt easy to drive so we were able to get straight into our programme of aero work. It certainly feels like a step forward from last year. The shower interrupted our afternoon but we still made it through our programme. Overall it went well so this was a good day of testing for us.”
Williams’ Nico Rosberg finished the day fourth, ahead of Robert Kubica in fifth for BMW Sauber. Kubica’s main focus was to test the 2010 specification tyres in order to give Bridgestone’s engineers feedback on next year’s compounds. In the morning the team decided to carry out a precautionary engine change, and by the end of the day the Polish driver had only racked up 47 laps.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t drive as many laps as planned. In the afternoon the session was interrupted by five red flags and the changing weather,” he said. “Because of this I expect a very busy day tomorrow.”
After sampling the newly-launched VJM02 for the first time, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella finished the day in sixth, ahead of the similarly-engined McLaren. The MP4-24 was in the experienced hands of tester Pedro de la Rosa, who covered 94 laps as he evaluated Bridgestone’s 2010 compounds. Kovalainen will test for the team on Monday.
McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa and Nelson Piquet Jr. of Renault completed the field.
Toro Rosso and Honda were the only F1 teams not present at the track in southern Spain.
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