Toro Rosso continued to set the pace at Toro Rosso today with three drivers topping the timesheets. However, as previously pointed out with some teams running with more 2009-spec components than others little can be read into the times.

Sebastien Buemi had one car for his exclusive use all day today while Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato shared the other. A damp track in the early morning meant the team was able to complete its assessment of the 2010 Bridgestone rain tyres, with Buemi also getting his first ever run on this year's intermediate rubber.

The conditions meant that Bourdais stayed behind the wheel longer than planned, so that Sato only ran for the last 90 minutes of the day. However, the Japanese driver was soon on the pace, as he carried out performance and long run testing, assessing various set-up options on the 2009 slick tyres.

Once the track had fully dried, Buemi also switched to slicks and tried various setup options to suit next year's tyres, happy with the balance he found on the car. He also did a tyre comparison between the "soft" and "medium" compounds available, the latter performing consistently on this high wear track.

Unfortunately, the Swiss driver's day ended slightly ahead of schedule, after a trip across a kerb caused slight damage to the car. It will be fully repaired in time for tomorrow, when Buemi and Sato drive for the final day of this test session.

For McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen got his first taste of slick tyres, low downforce and KERS when he began his 2009 testing programme in the MP4-23K. The Finn was on the pace immediately, adapting well to the interim car and able to provide good feedback to his engineers.

Pedro de la Rosa focused on the 23A, concentrating on aerodynamic work with the team's first attempt at running a 2009-configuration nose (below). The team claims the evaluation was "extremely positive". Tomorrow, the drivers will switch cars as they conclude the three-day programme.