Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher both returned to F1 action today having been out of the sport for different reasons. Massa, was back in an F1 cockpit for the first time since his horrendous in Hungary, while Schumacher returns after three years in retirement. Both drivers finished in the top three, separated by just 0.37s.

Media attention was frenzied at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo today, for not only were Massa and Schumacher returning to F1 duty, seven cars were making their track debut, three of them being unveiled just before the session got underway.

Massa worked mainly on defining a baseline set-up for the new car and on analysing the behaviour of the new Bridgestone tyres. The Brazilian Felipe covered a total of 102 laps, his quickest time being a 1.12.574.

"I'm happy about how it went today," said Massa. "We worked very well and drove many kilometres without any problems. The first impression of the car is really positive: it is easier to drive compared to the F60, we can work better on the set up and last but not least there's much more grip, which makes it much more pleasant to drive.

"Naturally it's still very early, but it's a good start," he continued. "The fastest lap? That doesn't mean anything, but it's always good being in the lead! I'm also satisfied with myself. It's great being back on the track, together with all the others and to see that nothing has changed. I drove over 100 laps and I could have done another 100 from the physical and mental point of view.

"I tried the soft compound a lot today," he added, "and I really liked it, but it's really too early to draw a conclusion, we have to wait and see how it works with higher temperatures to see the wear. We also drove with different fuel loads and the car was very balanced under all conditions; that's encouraging!"

Second quickest, splitting the two former Ferrari teammates, was Pedro de la Rosa in the Sauber C29 unveiled at this track just 24 hours earlier.

"For me it was a very positive day," said the Spaniard. "The car was reliable right from the beginning, which meant we could follow our programme perfectly without wasting any time. Also the car reacted to our changes very well. For me it was a day to get used to not only the new car but also to the team with all the people. And, of course, driving-wise there's more to come from me as this was only my first day after a long break."

"Overall, we are quite happy with what we achieved today," added technical director, Willy Rampf. "We started with an installation lap in the morning, checking the mechanical systems, followed by a baseline run in order to stabilise temperatures and pressures. We checked the hydraulic system, the fuel system and the gearshift, and everything worked well. In the afternoon we started with some basic set-up work, also to collect various data. It was a positive day without any noteworthy problems."

Tomorrow, Kamui Kobayashi will get his first laps in the new car with de la Rosa taking over again on Wednesday.

Nico Rosberg had the honour of giving the Silver Arrow its track debut, the main focus of his programme being to work through the initial set-up of the car and ensure that he was comfortable with his seat and position. The German drove out of the garage for his first installation run at 10:34 and completed five runs over 39 laps before he finished for the day at 13:40, setting the fourth fastest time.