On a day when (seemingly) all media attention was focussed on a wiry little Italian, who spent much of his time either standing at the back of his team's garage or disappearing to its motorhome, Honda new-boy, Rubens Barrichello splashed his was to the top of the timesheets.

MotoGP sensation Valentino Rossi was in town to test for Ferrari, which meant that everyone and anyone who could muster a press pass was at the Spanish track.

Unfortunately, due to the weather - it rained throughout the session - the Italian didn't take to the track until late in the day, and then span off into the gravel trap.

Barrichello was joined by Honda test driver Anthony Davidson, both drivers beginning with short set-up runs before practicing qualifying procedures for the new 2006 qualifying format.

The Honda duo then spent the afternoon completing further set-up work, running on intermediate tyres as the track dried out. The programme was completed with a second qualifying practice at the end of the day, the drivers posting the two fastest times of the day.

Jenson Button will take over from Anthony for the second day of the test tomorrow.

Ferrari's other driver, Michael Schumacher, was third quickest as the Italian team concentrated on development work on the relevant Bridgestone tyres. The German, who completed the most laps today (88), alternated between a 248 F1 and a V8 powered F2004.

McLaren had Kimi Raikkonen and Gary Paffett on duty, at the wheels of the MP4-21 and MP4-20 respectively. The team's programme for the four day test will focus on systems checks and set-up work of the MP4-21, as the development programme for the car progresses in the build-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The wet weather meant that only systems work was completed, giving the team the opportunity to run activities such as wet launches and fuel systems checks, the latter of which was why Kimi had a planned stoppage on track during the morning session.

Due to the bad weather Kimi was only able to complete 25 laps, which equates to just over 105km, Gary covered 170km with his work focused on wet tyre running with Michelin.

Kimi and Gary will continue tomorrow, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Pedro de la Rosa taking over for Thursday and Friday.

Following last Friday's launch and a couple of days of private running at the Spanish track, much of it for promotional purposes, it was down to some serious work for the WilliamsF1 duo of Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg. The Australian drove the new FW28, whilst his German teammate ran an FW27C, in which he had a couple of offs and suffered an engine failure.

"Considering the circuit was wet throughout the day, we completed a good programme on both the FW28 and FW27C," said Sam Michael. "Even with its tight packaging around the exhaust and cooling systems, the FW28 has not experienced any issues with burning or cooling, which is great.

"Mark drove the FW28 and completed 340kms on wet tyres with some long runs to check heat rejection numbers for the new car. Nico drove the FW27C and completed 316kms undergoing wet tyre testing for Bridgestone.

"It was evident from the lap times during the day that Bridgestone have an advantage in wet conditions. We should get some dry weather running tomorrow which will allow us to continue our programme."

Red Bull's Christian Klien must be wondering what he's done to offend the weather gods.

"I seem destined to be a rain driver," said the Austrian. "I did a full day of wet weather testing in Jerez, my day in Barcelona was wiped out because of rain and snow and then today it was wet again!

"You never really learn that much about a car in the wet," he continued, "but hopefully when it's my turn to drive again on Thursday, the weather will have improved."

Tomorrow (Wednesday), Toyota, BMW and Renault will join in the fun.

Weather
Air temperature: 8-10 C
Track temperature: 10-13 C.
Rain