De la Rosa leads the way for McLaren on First day of Jerez Testing

Less than three-tenths of a second covered the fastest six runners today as testing resumed at Jerez and it was Pedro de la Rosa who led the way in his McLaren Mercedes MP4-22.

The Spaniard completed an impressive 108 laps, bettered only by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton who was fourth fastest overall and Nelson Piquet in his Renault.

Alex Wurz got down to business with the new Williams Toyota FW29 that was launched last Friday. The Austrian put in a solid 72 laps of running lapping just 0.035s slower than pace-setter de la Rosa, despite going off track late in the session.

Robert Kubica was third fastest in his BMW Sauber while tester Sebastian Vettel was 11th in the sister machine. With Hamilton fourth fastest in his McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen took the fifth fastest time in his Ferrari.

Ralf Schumacher, fastest on the penultimate day of testing last week in Valencia, was sixth fastest today in his Toyota but still just 0.253s off the ultimate pace. Jenson Button was seventh in his Honda while Franck Montagny set the eighth fastest time. Nico Rosberg got to grips with his new FW29 and was ninth fastest ahead of Luca Badoer in the second F2007.

Red Bull continued their winter programme with David Coulthard and Mark Webber setting the 12th and 15th fastest times respectively with Piquet and Ricardo Zonta, between for Renault. Christian Klien brought up the tail of the timesheets in the second Honda.

Jerez - 06/02/2007
1 . P. de la Rosa - McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 - 1:20.001 (+ 0.000 ) - 108 laps
2 . A. Wurz - Williams Toyota FW29 - 1:20.036 (+ 0.035 ) - 72 laps
3 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.07 - 1:20.159 (+ 0.158 ) - 46 laps
4 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 - 1:20.233 (+ 0.232 ) - 111 laps
5 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F2007 - 1:20.245 (+ 0.244 ) - 86 laps
6 . R. Schumacher - Toyota TF107 - 1:20.254 (+ 0.253 ) - 55 laps
7 . J. Button - Honda RA107 - 1:20.371 (+ 0.370 ) - 99 laps
8 . F. Montagny - Toyota TF107 - 1:20.409 (+ 0.408 ) - 46 laps
9 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW29 - 1:20.525 (+ 0.524 ) - 62 laps
10 . L. Badoer - Ferrari F2007 - 1:20.666 (+ 0.665 ) - 62 laps
11 . S. Vettel - BMW Sauber F1.07 - 1:20.715 (+ 0.714 ) - 51 laps
12 . D. Coulthard - Red Bull Renault RB3 - 1:21.021 (+ 1.020 ) - 48 laps
13 . N. Piquet - Renault R27 - 1:21.264 (+ 1.263 ) - 117 laps
14 . R. Zonta - Renault R27 - 1:21.392 (+ 1.391 ) - 67 laps
15 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB3 - 1:21.858 (+ 1.857 ) - 27 laps
16 . C. Klien - Honda RA107 - 1:22.083 (+ 2.082 ) - 35 laps.