Sebastian Vettel finished ninth in the leading
Scuderia Toro Rosso STR2B, two places and three tenths ahead of team-mate and namesake Sébastien Bourdais. The 'two Sebs' concentrated on set-up work and further practice for race conditions with simulated pit-stops, starts and long runs, whilst at the same time looking at fine-tuning the 2008 electronics programme.
Rubens Barrichello was a lowly twelfth as
Honda continues its search for speed from its new RA108. The experienced Brazilian – who will break the record for number of grand prix starts this year by overtaking Riccardo Patrese – languished more than two seconds adrift of the leading pace, with the Japanese manufacturer's tester Alex Wurz bringing up the rear on the timing screens.
The two Hondas were split by di Grassi,
Takuma Sato for
Super Aguri and
Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi. Sato ended proceedings on day one 14th out of the 16 drivers present in an updated version of last year's Honda-powered machine equipped with the 2008 MES system. The interim SA07B ran reliably throughout, allowing the Japanese pilot to complete a number of longer runs during the afternoon whilst evaluating chassis set-ups in order to learn more about the car's performance.
To see the testing times in full,
click here
