Following Toyota's dismal start to the season in Bahrain, the Japanese teams has subsequently shown distinct signs of a revival, with Ralf Schumacher finishing third in Melbourne, and now, ahead of the start of the European F1 season, Jarno Trulli topping the test times at Barcelona.

With 18 drivers in action, the congestion on track led to a number of red flag incidents, with a total of nine stoppages interrupting today's running.

Toyota's schedule focused on tyre and aerodynamic work, as well as pit entry practice. Trulli had a delay in the morning yet both drivers were able to put in constructive days, completing 154 laps between them.

"To be honest, I am happy with today's running," said the Italian, "even though I had some issues with the car in the morning. We have improved the tyres and the car set-up a lot since the first two races, and finally as a result this is fitting my driving style. This is a huge improvement for me and today's results show that we are moving ahead.

"We still have a lot to work on, but everything has to go step by step. The team has worked hard to find the optimal solutions and I am confident that for myself I have found a good direction and that the tyres are working better with our car."

"Today was relatively successful," added Schumacher, "as we got through our test programme as planned without any big problems. We concentrated on tyre testing and some set-up work for Imola and the coming races.

"The track was busy with many cars, but in decent condition and this is similar to what we could have in Imola. In general, we have learned a lot about the tyres and the car and therefore we are working on doing our best with the package that we have. Tomorrow we will focus on long-runs and tyre testing."

"We had a very good day and found some interesting tyres," said Dieter Gass. "From today's runs we have also been able to confirm our previous tyre choices, which is a positive step for us. Although we had some issues during the day, we managed to finish the whole test programme that we had planned with both cars - mainly working on aerodynamics, set-up and tyres. Looking forward we are pleased with the progress made and will continue working hard to the results we are aiming for."

Tomorrow the team will once again be in action with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli at the wheel.

Second quickest, and only 0.010s off the pace, was the ubiquitous Renault, driven by Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was partnered by Giancarlo Fisichella.

The programme today for the French team was mainly focused on chassis set up in order to find the optimum way to exploit the Michelin tyres. Regarding the engine, the team wanted to continue the evaluation and mapping of the new spec B, which has so far performed in line with its objectives.

"We had a productive day once again and we completed an interesting programme on both cars," said Christian Silk. "The package was extremely reliable which allowed us to do lots of runs today and to complete our programme. We learned a lot about the behaviour of the R26 and made did interesting steps for the next races. Barcelona is a very good track for development work and we will have a busy day again tomorrow."