Renault's Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time of the day at Barcelona today, as the penultimate test of the year came to a close.

Once again, the day was mainly devoted to testing the reliability of the new standard ECU (the MES TAG31OB), which all the teams will have to use from 2008 onwards.

Kovalainen, who has done all the driving for Renault this week, continued to fine-tune his R27, testing various set-ups and getting to grips with a car that has neither traction control nor EBS. The Finn was able to complete a full programme this week without any major problems, though today, he was slightly delayed by a mechanical incident.

The French outfit will next be testing in Jerez at the start of December with Nelson Piquet Jr at the wheel.

“Today, we finished off our 3-day test session, which has been very positive in my opinion," said the Finn. "The car handled well right from the start. We’ve worked on the new ECU and we’ve kept progressing over the three days. We’ve been competitive whatever the track conditions, and we’ve shown how determined Renault is to fight its way back to the front in 2008. I think it’s a very important first step in our development programme for next season. Even if we know there are a number of areas where we can still progress, we’ve already done a great job this week.”

“We’ve ending this test with very positive results," added Christian Silk. "The mechanics did a great job today to enable us to get back out as quickly as possible, and achieve our objective concerning the number of kilometres covered. We did a lot of work on the brakes, and recorded a load of interesting data that we’ll have to interpret on our return to Enstone. We revised the car’s set-up last night, and Heikki seemed very satisfied today with its overall balance, which is very encouraging. The track changed throughout the day and the car coped with these changes very well. I think it’s fair to say that these three days have been very conclusive. Now, we’ll try to take advantage of our next test on the Jerez circuit to prepare for the arrival of the R28 in the best possible conditions.”

Second quickest was Ferrari's Felipe Massa Luca as the Italian team completed its planned programme, which centred on development of new components and electronics. Also in action for the Maranello outfit was Luca Badoer, who took over from Michael Schumacher.

Franck Montagny, making his final appearance for Toyota, signed off in style, posting the third fastest time of the day. The Frenchman was joined, as on the two previous days, by Jarno Trulli.

Montagny continued evaluating the 2008 standard ECU and enjoyed a productive morning, clocking almost 40 laps and setting encouraging lap times.

With the 30,000km annual testing limit in mind and also to allow his crew to make adjustments, Trulli only completed installation laps in the morning. In the afternoon he enjoyed a solid stint behind the wheel, evaluating set-ups using 2007 electronics but without traction control.

Montagny continued his work on the electronics system and other development parts and completed a suitably positive end to his final day behind the wheel for the team.

“I think today went well," said Trulli. "We did everything we had planned in our programme. Everybody can see we have not done a lot of laps each day this week because we are a bit limited on the mileage. But we managed to do a lot of good work and we got a lot of interesting information from our set-up work so we have a better understanding of several areas which will be very helpful for the 2008 car. It has been a good test and I am pleased with the work we have done.”

“It was my last day driving for the team and it has been a good day, which I am happy about," added Montagny. "Yesterday was not so great, we made a mistake on tyre pressures and we had a few problems, but today everything went pretty well - we set decent lap times and everything was very consistent. We worked hard and I think we have made a good step forwards. Even though this car is not the 2008 version, it still has quite a few new items on it and we have made good progress with them. I hope for the team that we have moved in the right direction.”

“We had a successful end to the test and both drivers completed all the work we planned for them," said Pascal Vasselon, the Japanese outfit's Senior General Manager Chassis. "It has been a useful three days in general because we have tested several items looking ahead to next season, including the standard ECU. Overall we have made good progress with the system, even though we had some minor issues during the course of the test. We also looked at set-up with the 2008 control system and made some interesting comparisons which should help us for next season. I think we can be pleased with what we have achieved and we will continue to work hard in preparation for 2008, both at the factory and at the next test.”

There was a significant improvement from Toro Rosso, with both cars making it into the top ten. Unlike yesterday, there was no swapping of chassis for the two drivers, with Sebastian Vettel sticking to the car running the 2008 Common ECU, while Sebastien Bourdais ran a 2007 spec car, with traction control and engine braking turned off.

Vettel also worked on the new suspension, trying various different settings. For Bourdais, the past three days have been something of a learning process as the team adapted to providing him with a car that suits his driving style.