McLaren's Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets at the end of the opening session of a three-day test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.
The Briton lapped the 3.593-km track layout in a best time of one minute 5.6 seconds as the McLaren team focused their efforts on preparing the MP4-23 chassis for the high-downforce Monaco Grand Prix on May 25.
Hamilton, currently joint second in the drivers' championship behind Kimi Raikkonen, will relinquish driving duties tomorrow as Heikki Kovalainen takes over.
The sole Ferrari of Raikkonen was second quickest today, almost half a second slower than Hamilton having completed 19 more laps, while BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica was third after 124 laps.
Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber finished the day in fourth place ahead of stable mate Sebastian Vettel, who impressed in the new Toro Rosso car with a time of 1min 6.372secs, less than three hundredths of a second behind Webber's sister car.
The endurance award went to Nico Rosberg, who completed a mammoth 154 laps in the
Williams FW30, which was sporting a new shark-fin engine cover.
Alex Wurz was seventh for Honda with a best time of 1:06.681, while Toyota tested a number of Monaco-specific aerodynamic revisions as Timo Glock went eighth fastest.
Tonio Liuzzi was ninth for Force India, while Renault's test driver Luca di Grassi was the slowest of the 10 drivers on show today, posting a best lap almost two seconds slower than Hamilton's benchmark.
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