Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was the pace setter in the south of France today, as a three day test got underway at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track.

The Finn was the only Renault driver on track today but he will be joined tomorrow by Giancarlo Fisichella who will stay for the duration of the session. The team will have two R26 chassis running this week.

Kovalainen's programme was mainly focused on the development of the a new engine evolution as well as an important tyre programme with Michelin in order to prepare the first European meeting, in Imola in two weeks time.

To take benefit of the two cars available today and optimize his time at the wheel, Heikki Kovalainen ran both chassis, completing 133 laps and setting the fastest time of the day in 1: 04.927.

"We've had quite a busy day with two cars to run with just one driver!" admitted Christian Silk. "We had a few small problems today but they did not delay our programme. We worked on interesting directions for the first European races. We completed an important programme of tyre testing today and Heikki seemed quite happy with it"

Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett were both on duty for McLaren, driving an MP4-21 and interim MP4-20 respectively.

The Spaniard's schedule for the week includes work on the front suspension and dampers, with more of a focus towards the end of the session on Michelin tyre work. The Englishman is continuing his Michelin selection and development programme, with work focused on the San Marino Grand Prix.

Pedro conducted the majority of his running during the afternoon, as a fuel pressure problem required the team to complete repairs in the morning. Meanwhile, Gary had an engine failure on his interim car at the end of the session, however due to the timing, he had already completed his programme for the day. The V10 in his car had already covered over 1200km.

Jacques Villeneuve and Robert Kubica were in action for BMW as the German team got back to work following its double-points scoring finish in Melbourne at the weekend.

In the morning, the engineers made special data measurements on Jacques' car, while Robert worked on the set-up and the fine tuning of the electronic systems.

In the afternoon, both drivers completed a tyre test for Michelin. Robert tested tyres in view of the San Marino Grand Prix, while Jacques carried out a development programme.

Tomorrow (Thursday), Jacques and Robert will continue to work on a tyre and aerodynamic programme.

While speculation continued over the split with its technical director, Mike Gascoyne, it was business as usual on the test track for Toyota.

Ricardo Zonta came back from Australia to join team mate Olivier Panis at the first of two tests before the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, both drivers concentrating on set-up and tyre work for the coming European races.

"I am really happy with today's results," said the Brazilian. "We worked on aerodynamic scans and tyre tests. From this, we learned a lot and showed that we had a good lap time, which is the best we have done at Paul Ricard. Therefore, in my opinion this was the best day of testing this year because we found some really positive results. Tomorrow we will work on the tyre programme more extensively for Imola to be able to make the tyre choice for the race."

"Today was a good day, putting in a good amount of laps," added Panis. "Today I was driving with the old aerodynamic package testing various items, like balance set-ups and traction control scans. Tomorrow, the car will be set up with the new chassis and therefore we have a bigger tyre test programme planned. The last test really helped us to move in the right direction and I feel the test team did a great job pushing hard to prepare for the last race. The results were positive for the team, but we still have to keep going to be fully competitive."

"In comparison to the last tests, the least amount of worries went into the weather forecast," admitted test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "The day turned out to be pleasant with temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius, which are similar to race conditions at Imola therefore allowing us to get through quite a number of test items. Tomorrow we will concentrate on tyre testing and trying different constructions in order to make the tyre choice for San Marino. Our major goal for this and the next test is to continue our development for the coming races."

Robert Doornbos, on duty for Red Bull, completed the fewest laps and posted a best time almost 1.5s off the pace.