Mark Webber set the pace on the first day of the final pre-season test at Barcelona, Sergio Perez' late timesheet-topper being disallowed as the Mexican was adjudged as having missed the chicane.

It was a bitterly cold and grey day at the Spanish track, with rain early on and the threat of it returning for most of the session thereafter. The maximum air temperature was 13.2 degrees C, while the maximum track temperature was 27.2.

"It was a pretty good day and not much has changed since last week," said Webber, as Red Bull continues to impress, having completed the most laps (97) and posted the quickest time. "We got some good laps in today. I think everybody is limited by tyres, we don't have unlimited sets of tyres these days, so the mileage is a bit controlled by how many you have at your disposal. But, all in all, we had a good afternoon and got some good information."

"Today was the first proper test for Chassis 02 and I'm happy to say everything went according to plan," added head of race engineering, Ian Morgan. "We had a mixture of things to get through today, concentrating on some short runs in the morning and then longer race-distance type runs in the afternoon.

"The only difficulties we encountered were the slightly low ambient temperatures and some windy conditions," he continued. "It would be nice to get the chance to test in hotter conditions and we hope for a bit of increase as the week goes on. But that was a small problem really on a pretty useful day for us."

As reported earlier, McLaren has chosen to split this final test over two separate two-day sessions. This provides the team with a changeover day on Thursday and also extends the arrival of new components over the course of the test's full five days.

With Jenson Button behind the wheel, the Woking team spent the morning evaluating a number of new parts, including a new front-wing, and conducting pitstop practices and studies with the full race-crew. The afternoon's focus was on longer runs and tyre analysis.

The day's running was also notable for the appearance of a distinctive piece of porpoise-shaped measuring equipment which was fitted to the nosecone of Button's car. The equipment was for testing purposes only and will not be raced.

"The last couple of tests haven't been perfect for us," said Button, "and I think that's partly due to us lacking set-up work. But today I think we made some positive progress with MP4-26's balance. This morning, I did a number of short runs and, in the afternoon, we did some long runs, looked at set-up and balance, and spent the rest of the day looking at tyre consistency.

"I know there's not much testing left - I only have one more day in the car," he added, "but, after today, I feel we can make further positive progress over the next few days. Given the limited amount of set-up work we've completed this winter, I feel we now have a good base upon which we can build. And that's nice to see."

Nick Heidfeld was supposed to be on duty for Lotus Renault GP however, after just 20 laps the German complained that he was suffering from a cold and consequently Vitaly Petrov took over.

The team spent the day validating the performance of several key elements of the "race one aero package" to ensure the track data matched with the wind tunnel figures. Both drivers tried the new rear wing and new floor, and according to the team the initial data confirms that the updated package is a step forward.

"I have a cold at the moment so the team said I could try the car this morning and stop in the afternoon," said Heidfeld. "The priority of the day was to assess some new aero parts. That's why we did a lot of in and out laps for the aero mapping. We are still analysing the data, but the feeling was positive. Then, we used the rest of the morning to do a few starts, system checks and looked at some development items."

"We didn't do a massive number of laps this afternoon," added Petrov, "but we managed to check the balance and did some set-up work ready for tomorrow. The new aero parts are another step forward and have given us some more downforce."

"Nick wasn't feeling too well so we didn't do anything too strenuous in the morning," said Alan Permane. "We wanted him to get a feel for the new aero parts and his initial feedback was very useful. Vitaly took over in the afternoon and ran the same parts. Again the focus was on gathering data for the aero package, so he did some constant speed runs. He also began a set-up programme and ran on both the hard and soft tyres."

This being the final test, Sauber, like its rivals, concentrated on evaluating various new components ahead of the season opener in Australia.