Ferrari's Michael Schumacher set the pace on the final day of testing at Barcelona, though he was unable to match Thursday's record-breaking pace.

Although the day got off to a cloudy start, conditions improved throughout the day, with temperatures reaching 24 degrees centigrade.

Following Luca Badoer's heavy crash on Thursday, Schumacher was the only Ferrari driver on track for today's session, though the German had his own little off-track excursion towards the end of the day. The former World Champion completed his planned programme, which included development of Bridgestone tyres, as well as evaluation of new car components.

BMW's Robert Kubica was second quickest, just 0.017s off the German's pace, as he joined Nick Heidfeld.

The Pole had a trouble-free day and was able to complete his entire programme, which included tyre testing for Silverstone in the morning and aerodynamic work and tyres in the afternoon. Nick also had a problem free day. In the morning he did set-up work and damper and suspension test. After a scheduled lunchtime engine change he did aero work in the in the afternoon.

The three drivers - Jacques Villeneuve, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica - completed a total of 2,866 kilometres over the three days, with each doing two days.

As ever, Renault were up near the top of the timesheets, this time it was Giancarlo Fisichella who proved to be the quicker of the two drivers on duty for the French outfit - though only by one-thousandth of a second.

The Italian, and teammate Heikki Kovalainen, concentrated on long run performance during the day, finalising the tyre selection ahead of next weekend's British Grand Prix, as they conducted endurance running. Both drivers showed encouraging first lap pace and consistency as they set third and fourth-fastest times respectively.

"It was a strong final day for the team today," said Christian Silk. "The team has worked well this week, and we have completed a lot of reliable laps to make good progress with our programmes. Michelin have developed an interesting range of products for the coming race, and we feel we have some good answers for Silverstone. We can be optimistic of another strong Renault performance next weekend."

Jarno Trulli continued to prove the potential of the TF106B as Olivier Panis continued with the TF106. Unfortunately, the Frenchman suffered a mechanic failure towards the end of the day, resulting in a red-flag period.

"Our test here at the Circuit de Catalunya has allowed us to simulate some race characteristics of Silverstone," said test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "In terms of aerodynamics and tyres, Silverstone is similar to Barcelona in that there are many long, high-speed corners. Because of this, Silverstone is demanding for the drivers and we therefore worked hard this week to make sure the cars are set-up to give the drivers the confidence they need to push during the race."

"The new car is showing potential," said Trulli, "and we have been working on finding a better balance and perfect set-up for me. The tyres we have been using are getting better as well.

"Of course there is still work to do and the Silverstone set-up will be much different than in Monaco," he admitted, "therefore we will have to wait and see how the B-car does on a high-speed track. Even though we have not yet tested at Silverstone this year, I think the race will be a tough fight and we are definitely going to be pushing hard to gain some points."

"My main focus today was on doing some long runs," said Panis, "however I felt some minor vibrations on the car and it took up a lot of time trying different set-ups before the car felt good to drive. This is normal during testing and we strive to make sure the car has a perfect package before heading into the next grand prix.

"Overall the team worked hard and we were still able to finish some launches, tyre construction and software comparisons."

Juan Pablo Montoya and Pedro de la Rosa completed McLaren's programme, as both drivers continued the work on suspension and aerodynamics whilst evaluating the final selection of prime and option tyres for Silverstone.

Juan Pablo was seventh fastest having completed a total of 113 laps, his work also concentrated on specific car set-up for the forthcoming grand prix working with his race engineer.

Pedro completed over 450km whilst setting the sixth fastest time. He had been focusing on long runs for most of the day. Shortly after 14:00 the engine in Pedro's car was changed as it had completed its mileage quota. The mechanics worked hard and were able to get the Spaniard back out on track for the final hour of the days running.