There was no need to look at the calendar today, as six teams continued testing at Jerez de la Frontera.

It was hard to keep count of the red flags - over 40 - as cars broke drown, spun off and engines detonated... and that was before the rain began to fall.

It wasn't all bad news though, with Fernando Alonso leaving the Spanish track with a huge grin on his face, having posted the best time of the day, in the 2006 car.

The final day of running shared a common theme with the rest of the test for the French team - run as many laps as possible to collect information about the new R26 package.

Alonso had the new car for the second successive day as the team looked to complete long runs during the afternoon. However, uncertain weather conditions saw rain showers disrupt the running, while the numerous red flags also slowed proceedings - though none were caused by the French outfit.

Giancarlo Fisichella concluded his week's work with a second day aboard the R25. He worked on tyre development, collecting data that will be transposed directly onto the new car beginning in Barcelona.

"I think we had a good week," said Alonso. "We wanted to do lots of miles, and we did it without any big mechanical problems.

"I feel good in the car," he added, "and I am looking forward to getting back in it at Barcelona in ten days. We will work again on the reliability, and hopefully we can start to look at the performance too. We should have some new things to test already, so it will be very interesting."

Second quickest was Anthony Davidson, who was partnered by Rubens Barrichello, who 'enjoyed' his second outing in the V8 powered 'concept' car. Enjoyed isn't perhaps the right word, for the Brazilian was one of several drivers to experience an engine failure, his detonating in typical Honda style.

The Brazilian continued to acclimatise himself to the V8 car, completing further familiarisation runs and working on set-up. He completed a couple of dry runs in the afternoon session, followed by a wet run at the end of the day on intermediate tyres, completing a total of 33 laps over the course of the day. Davidson continued his work in the V8 car running through further aerodynamic evaluations alongside general set-up work.

Barrichello will remain in Jerez on Saturday to complete a wet tyre programme with Michelin.

Tyre testing remained the focus of the Mercedes test programme. Gary Paffett and Pedro de la Rosa put in the fourth and fifth fastest times of the day respectively.

Heavy rain towards the end of the session limited running in the late afternoon, as a result the two McLaren drivers completed just over 360kms of the Spanish track. Both Gary and Pedro had minor electronic software issues, which saw them stop out on track twice and once respectively.

The final day of this week's session will take place tomorrow (Saturday) with Pedro. This will be a wet test for the Michelin runners, with the track artificially dampened to allow the teams to complete wet tyre testing.