Regular Renault racer Nelson Piquet was joined by Giedo van der Garde, last seen testing with Super Aguri and Spyker last year, as the duo run 2008 wings set to minimal downforce levels. Piquet and van der Garde were ninth and 16th fastest respectively - the latter crashing out of the action mid-afternoon.

Nico Hulkenberg opted to skip the Macau Grand Prix at the weekend and was in action today for the Williams Toyota team. The F3 Euroseries winner ran a modified FW30 chassis featuring 2009-spec wings and slick tyres. The German also completed some laps with the standard 2008-spec rear wing and ended the day 11th best for the Grove-based team.

Over at Force India, Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil took part in the first day of running and proved closely matched in positions 12 and 13 in what seems to be a fairly standard VJM01 package.

Testing continues at the venue on Tuesday.

Barcelona - 17/11/2008
1 . T. Sato - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR3 - 1:20.763 (+ 0.000 ) - 121 laps
2 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR3 - 1:21.071 (+ 0.308 ) - 117 laps
3 . A. Wurz - Honda RA108 - 1:21.198 (+ 0.435 ) - 77 laps
4 . P. de la Rosa - McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 - 1:21.417 (+ 0.654 ) - 65 laps
5 . G. Paffett - McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 - 1:21.956 (+ 1.193 ) - 78 laps
6 . L. Badoer - Ferrari F2008 - 1:22.038 (+ 1.275 ) - 94 laps
7 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.08 - 1:22.341 (+ 1.578 ) - 56 laps
8 . S. Loeb - Red Bull Renault RB4 - 1:22.503 (+ 1.740 ) - 82 laps
9 . N. Piquet - Renault R28 - 1:22.560 (+ 1.797 ) - 80 laps
10 . C. Klien - BMW Sauber F1.08 - 1:22.883 (+ 2.120 ) - 53 laps
11 . N. Hulkenberg - Williams Toyota FW30 - 1:23.467 (+ 2.704 ) - 116 laps
12 . V. Liuzzi - Force India Ferrari VJM01 - 1:23.794 (+ 3.031 ) - 86 laps
13 . A. Sutil - Force India Ferrari VJM01 - 1:23.832 (+ 3.069 ) - 88 laps
14 . M. Gene - Ferrari F2008 - 1:24.177 (+ 3.414 ) - 32 laps
15 . B. Senna - Honda RA108 - 1:24.343 (+ 3.580 ) - 39 laps
16 . G. van der Garde - Renault R28 - 1:24.908 (+ 4.145 ) - 32 laps
17 . L. Di Grassi - Honda RA108 - 1:25.512 (+ 4.749 ) - 48 laps.

Earl ALEXANDER
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