For the third successive day, Felipe Massa topped the timesheets as Sakhir. And as pre-season, at least as far as the majority of teams are concerned, came to a close, the Brazilian signed off in style, posting the fastest lap of the year at the Bahrain track.

Massa and Kimi Raikkonen both ran with a new 056 engine today, completing all the F2007 development programme which the Italian team had defined prior to arriving in Bahrain.

The Brazilian finished his work before the lunch break, which meant that, in the final part of the day, his teammate was able to go back to using the aerodynamic package that he first tried on Tuesday. Both drivers worked mainly on finding the best set-up for the car.

With its Winter testing programme now at an end, Ferrari will now concentrate on the trip to Australia. On Thursday March 8 at Fiorano, Luca Badoer will carry out a shakedown of the cars that will take part in the first Grand Prix of the season.

Having previously opted for reliability as opposed to pace, today Renault proved that it too can bang in fast lap times when needed, with Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella finishing second and third quickest, thus setting up the prospect of a real battle in Melbourne.

The World Championship winning team concluded its final test of the 2007 pre-season, with both race drivers running through the day and completing their planned work in spite of the numerous red flags.

Fisichella completed the set-up work that has been his primary focus this week, as well as practicing race weekend procedures ahead of the season opener in two weeks' time. A mechanical problem in the middle of the day cost him track time, but the parts involved had exceeded their target mileage when they failed. Overall, the Italian enjoyed a positive day, and was encouraged by the performance of the R27.

Kovalainen also worked hard to complete his planned programme for the week. Completing his sixth day of running in eight days at Sakhir, the Finn continued to accumulate mileage ahead of his Grand Prix debut in Melbourne, while simultaneously fine-tuning preparations for the third race of the season at the Bahraini circuit. The Finn also demonstrated a strong level of performance in spite of interruptions owing to mechanical difficulties, and he rounded off his pre-season preparations with second-fastest time.

"We concentrated on practicing procedures this morning," said Christian Silk, "which was handled without any major problems. Then continued working on set-up testing with both cars.

"Heikki and Giancarlo experienced some mechanical problems in the middle part of the day," he admitted, "but the team worked hard to fix them and make the most of the remaining track time. We have concluded our pre-season test programme on an encouraging note. Both drivers completed their programmes, and demonstrated promising performance. It has been a long, demanding winter for the whole team, and we are now looking forward to see how the R27 performs in race conditions. We have a competitive package, and we are feeling confident, but we will be working hard through the rest of the season to develop and improve the car."

Renault will pursue its on-track development at the next test, in Sepang, from 27 to 29 March. For logistical reasons, this test will be conducted by the race team. The team will run a single car, in line with the 2007 test agreement.

McLaren had its two Spanish drivers on duty, with Fernando Alonso joining Pedro de la Rosa as the Woking team continued its preparatory work for Melbourne, working through the test plan of aero development, Bridgestone Potenza evaluation and set-up programmes.

For Honda, Jenson Button began with race start and qualifying simulations before completing aero and electronic controls systems work. Meanwhile, Rubens Barrichello continued to work on general set-up aimed at improving the car's performance over short and long runs. The Brazilian spent the afternoon completing long tyre runs on the different Bridgestone compounds available.

"We can now look forward to the first Grand Prix in Melbourne," said the Englishman. "The car has proved reliable throughout pre-season testing and we have made improvements since the RA107 ran for the first time in January. However, we still have some work to do off-track to ensure we can get the most from our package in the first few races."

"The test has gone well," added Barrichello, "although we had a much better day today than yesterday. I have been able to complete some good long
distance running with the car and the reliability is there, which is positive. It is difficult to predict where we are in relation to the other teams, and although I am comfortable with our results, we do still have some development work to achieve. I am really looking forward to the start of the season as I feel very much at home with the team and the car this year and I think we can do a good job together."