Sebastian Vettel set the pace at the
Jerez de la Frontera circuit in the extreme south of Spain on Tuesday where drivers' and teams' had to cope with track temperatures exceeding the 50 degrees Celsius mark.
Vettel, who set the fastest time of the day in the morning when it was cooler - a 1 minute 19.844 seconds - completed 94 laps in total, getting through his entire programme without any technical glitches.
Aero testing followed by mechanical work aimed at improving set-up and traction were the first items on the agenda for the German, before he evaluated some new brake materials and then switched back to aero work.
He will now continue running on Wednesday, when he will spend the entire day working on
Bridgestone's new 2009 spec slick tyres. Bridgestone has opted to take the medium compound dry grooved Potenza tyres as well as two compounds of 2009 tyres to this test, as prepations continue for next year.
Gary Paffett was 'best of the rest' meanwhile for McLaren-Mercedes, the Englishman coming in around two-three tenths slower on a 1m 20.179s. He did 80 tours and fine-tuned a wide number of aero components, as well as looking at different suspension set-ups.
Luca Badoer was third and the Scuderia will be keen to try and make some significant progress this week ahead of the Hungarian GP, after less than sparkly runs in Britain and Germany.
Badoer worked on two main areas - the morning was dedicated to comparing various different aerodynamic solutions, while in the afternoon, he ran slick tyres in preparation for the 2009 season, with the consequent modifications to the aerodynamics on the F2008, to try and replicate the levels of downforce that will be required starting next year.
"We completed our planned programme," said Badoer, who did 69 laps in total, his best effort coming towards the end of the day.
