BMW's Robert Kubica was quickest at Sepang today, as a three-day test involving ten teams got underway.

As one might expect, conditions were hot and humid, with the air temperature reaching 37 degrees C, and the track temperature reaching 48 degrees.

With the Malaysian Grand Prix taking place next weekend, BMW, like its rivals, focussed on set-up work for the second round of the championship, together with tyre evaluations.

The German team will also try some new aero parts in addition to the fine tuning of electronic systems and checking the F1.07's cooling systems under the extreme conditions encountered here.

Kubica posted more laps (92) than anyone else today, thereby confirming the car's reliability.

Tomorrow, the Pole will continue testing before Nick Heidfeld takes over on Thursday. Robert's programme for Wednesday is mainly aero set-up work
and more work on the tyres for the forthcoming GP.

Second quickest, just 0.115s behind, was World Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari. The Finn Kimi worked mainly on preparation for the race, concentrating on set-ups, together with tyre and aero evaluations.

Williams demonstrated that its pre-season test form and points finish in Melbourne were no flash in the pan, with Alexander Wurz finishing third quickest of the ten driver on duty.

"We've had a productive start," said Race Team Manager Tim Newton. "We worked through a programme of short runs in the morning, followed by longer runs in the afternoon to test aero components and set-up options in preparation for the race next weekend.

"It's the first time we've run the car in such hot conditions," he added, "so it's important data for us."

Fourth quickest, giving his team a little hope ahead of next week's race - was Rubens Barrichello in the Honda. In an effort to turn its dismal Melbourne and pre-season performance around, the Japanese team is introducing a raft of new components over the coming weeks, with today's programme involving a revised aero components and a new front suspension.

Pedro de la Rosa was on duty for McLaren as the Woking outfit began an intense programme. Today, the Constructors' Championship leaders focused on general performance uplift - their words - with a number of new components incorporated into the MP4-22, alongside tyre evaluation.

Tomorrow, Lewis Hamilton will take over testing duties for the Woking team.

Toyota was represented by Franck Montagny. However, the Frenchman was the cause of the sole red flag period today when he suffered a drive train failure before the lunch break. He was back on the track to continue set-up comparisons later in the afternoon and that work will be continued by Ralf Schumacher tomorrow.

"It was not a bad day today," said the Frenchman, "even if we did have a little problem when I stopped out on the circuit. It took a little bit of time to resolve that but in general the car is looking quite good at the moment. We worked on different set-ups with these tyres and I think we are making good progress. Now we just have to work more on our set-ups to be sure we are going in the right direction. I am pretty content with the car on this track and in the hot weather, it is very drivable and there are no major problems."

"Today was a mixed start to our test," admitted Test Team Manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "The conditions here are very different to those we experienced in our pre-season tests in Europe but the team has adapted and we were able to do some useful work in the morning.

"Obviously, with the Malaysian Grand Prix so soon after this test, we concentrated mainly on finding a set-up for our car on this track," he continued. "As well as that, we are continually pushing for more performance and today we got more information which should help us. We lost some time with the drive train failure early in the afternoon and that took a while to repair. But the team worked hard to get the car back on track, despite the tough weather conditions, and we resumed our programme in the afternoon."

0.6s down on the Honda, but ahead of the Renault, Red Bull and Toro Rosso was Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri. The Japanese team's programme covers a wide range of aerodynamic, engine and tyre evaluations, with Sato spending the first day focussing on aero and set-up tests.