Michael Schumacher made a sensational return to the cockpit today, posting fastest time of the day, his first day of testing since the end of the season, and his first time in the V8.

The German's return to work was marred slightly in the morning, when he span off, but he soon buckled down and put the incident behind him. The former World Champion, at the wheel of an F2004M, worked on development of the V8, in collaboration with Shell.

Making it a perfect day for the Maranello outfit, teammate Felipe Massa was second quickest, albeit in the (restricted) V10 powered F2005, as he focussed on tyre development.

Renault drivers, Franck Montagny and Heikki Kovalainen were third and fourth quickest as the team continued with tyre and set-up evaluation programmes. Following overnight rain, a wet circuit early in the day prevented any useful running, but as conditions improved the team ran problem-free to complete a total of 239 laps.

Montagny conducted set-up work, followed by tyre compound development with Michelin; conversely, Heikki Kovalainen completed a programme of tyre construction evaluation, prior to a set-up programme focusing on 2006.

"We had another very productive day," said Christian Silk, "once again completing a high mileage with both drivers. The poor conditions in the morning meant we had to push hard to get today's work done, but the team and both drivers delivered. The car continues to look competitive in simulated V8 configuration, and we made good progress with our tyre development."

Anthony Davidson worked through a tyre evaluation for Honda in the morning, while Adam Carroll focussed on chassis set-up work and a short aero programme.

In the afternoon, Davidson continued with tyre evaluation, while Carroll continued to work on his chassis set-up programme.

Toyota wrapped up its 2005 test programme with Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis on duty, as the Japanese concentrated on set-up and tyre evaluation as it continues its work with its new supplier, Bridgestone.

"I think we have learned quite a lot over the three days," said Zonta, "and confirmed that we are heading in the right direction. We did some tyre tests today and some long runs, which are important for the team. We collected a lot of data although we did not change the set-up much today. We were not going for lap times, just concentrating on the tyre programme. The track conditions were changing quite a lot and there were a lot of interruptions for red-flag periods, so it was hard to have the consistent conditions you need for meaningful testing."

"Overall I think we can be happy with the test," added Dieter Gass, the team's chief race engineer. "We now understand more about the tyres and we have proved that the development of the car is at a good stage.

"We had some small mechanical problems throughout but nothing to worry about and nothing unusual. Both Olivier and Ricardo had good tests and worked through our programme."

Juan Pablo Montoya suffered an engine failure shortly before lunch, but the team got him back out on track by 15:30 to continue his programme. Meanwhile, Pedro de la Rosa finished had a very productive day, completing 117 laps.

As with the previous two tests in Barcelona and Jerez, the team focused on the continuing Mercedes-Benz V8 and Michelin tyre development process in the interim MP4-20Bs.

WilliamsF1 had Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg on duty, but both had problems. The German suffered an engine failure at the start of the day, while his teammate span off following a transmission failure.

BMW continued with cooling system tests in addition to running engine functionality checks. They also started work with Michelin on a tyre evaluation programme. Later the engineers discovered heat damage as a consequence of a defective exhaust pipe. This could not be fixed in time, so the team packed up a little earlier than expected.

Only Ferrari, WilliamsF1, Renault and Honda continue here tomorrow.

To check out our Jerez test picture gallery, click here