Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the pacesetter on the first day of a three-day test at Barcelona today.

15 drivers representing 8 teams were on duty, as preparations for the British Grand Prix got underway.

Following overnight rain, running was restricted in the morning due to further intermittent showers, which at least allowed drivers to do some wet set-up work. However, conditions improved throughout the afternoon, and consequently team were able to begin their scheduled programmes and the times tumbled.

Massa and Luca Badoer were on duty for Ferrari, both at the wheel of 248 F1s. In the morning, the Brazilian worked on development of Bridgestone rain tyres. However, in the afternoon, once the track was completely dry, he and Badoer got down to work on a new components programme and evaluation of tyre constructions.

Renault drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen focused on tyre selection for Silverstone, while Giancarlo also completed an extensive data logging programme. Between them they completed over 150 laps, finishing the day second and third on the timesheets.

"We had a good first day," said chief test engineer Christian Silk. "The weather disrupted our work early on, but after that, we were able to get our teeth into the tyre development programme. The performance of the car looks good - as we knew from the race here just over two weeks ago. We got plenty of laps done in spite of the delay, and look forward to building on this tomorrow and Friday."

Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis were on hand for Toyota putting in a cumulative 214 laps despite the rain fall in the morning.

"Today's testing went very well with both Olivier and Ricardo completing their programs and pushing hard to put in over 200 laps," team manager, Richard Cregan. "We were mainly focused on getting through a Bridgestone tyre test that we had planned. Due to the rain and wet track in the morning we completed a wet tyre test with Olivier and in the afternoon both drivers continued with long runs to help prepare the tyre choice for the next race. While Olivier did his running in the old car, Ricardo was driving the B-car collecting further data on its behaviour."

"Today was a positive day for the team," added Panis, who finished fourth quickest. "Considering the track conditions I was able to do a lot of running. On my car, we were taking a lot of measurements and testing different set-ups, all the while gaining data on the tyres and their performance. We did not have any reliability problems with my car, and the times we ran today are also a positive sign."

Fifth quickest was Honda's Jenson Button, who was joined by Rubens Barrichello. The Englishman ran through a chassis set-up programme completing a total of 102 laps, was one of several drivers to cause the red flags to come out - having spun off at the chicane.

Rubens ran through an aero evaluation followed by a tyre programme to finish the day, completing a total of 110 laps.

Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett were in attendance for McLaren. Like many other drivers, in the morning, due to the damp conditions, Pedro and Gary focused on wet Michelin testing.

When conditions were dry, the Woking team began its programme for the week in earnest. This saw Pedro and Gary work on a combination of front and rear suspension and aerodynamic developments.

BMW did very little work in the morning apart from a systems check in the wet. After an early lunch, Jacques Villeneuve did aero work, which produced some promising results for Silverstone, and also some set- up work. Robert Kubica worked on a tyre casing programme for Michelin and also on set-ups.

Tomorrow Nick Heidfeld will arrive to take over from Robert for the first of his two days. The programme will feature overall car and systems development and also the continuation of tyre work.

Scott Speed was on duty for Toro Rosso, out-pacing Red Bull drivers Christian Klien and Robert Doornbos.

All circuit activity ceased at 14:30 in order to observe a minute's silence in honour of Édouard Michelin, chairman of Michelin, who died in a boating accident last Friday.

The minute's silence was observed at the same time as the funeral was being held in Clermont-Ferrand. All the drivers and teams personnel - as well as Circuit's staff - met in front of the pit-lane wall to offer their condolences to Michelin's family.

The weather forecast for tomorrow (Thursday) is for a dry day.