By Karl King
April 7 2006

Pedro de la Rosa set the pace at Paul Ricard on Thursday. The Spaniard was focusing on the front suspension and general set up. He completed 147 laps, and in the meanwhile set the fastest lap of the day, a 1m04.231. Pedro also began his Michelin tyre development work today.

Robert Doornbos, the slowest man on track yesterday, set an impressive best lap, just 0.031s slower than de la Rosa. Renault tester Heikki Kovalainen was third fastest behind the Red Bull Ferrari of Doornbos. The Finn, dubbed the man to replace Fernando Alonso on his arrival to McLaren, completed only 11 laps during the day.

Gary Paffett made an appearance for McLaren. The Brit was again testing the V10 powered orange M-20B, and was only 0.005s slower than Kovalainen. Paffett, who completed 127 laps was a tenth quicker than Renault's regular driver Giancarlo Fisichella.

Ricardo Zonta was sixth fastest in the TF106, while Vitantonio Liuzzi took the Red Bull Ferrari RB2 out for a spin, and was only 0.683s behind de la Rosa.

The BMW Saubers occupied 8th and 9th spaces on the timesheet, with Jacques Villenueve faster than tester Kubica. Olivier Panis was less than impressive, the only man on home soil was also the slowest, he was lapping over a second and a half off the pace.

Pedro and Gary will wrap up McLaren's testing scheduele for this week tomorrow.

1 . P. de la Rosa - McLaren Mercedes MP4-21 - 1:04.231 (+ 0.000 ) - 147 laps
2 . R. Doornbos - Red Bull Ferrari RB2 - 1:04.262 (+ 0.031 ) - 116 laps
3 . H. Kovalainen - Renault R26 - 1:04.274 (+ 0.043 ) - 11 laps
4 . G. Paffett - McLaren Mercedes MP4-20B V10 - 1:04.279 (+ 0.048 ) - 127 laps
5 . G. Fisichella - Renault R26 - 1:04.380 (+ 0.149 ) - 104 laps
6 . R. Zonta - Toyota TF106 - 1:04.655 (+ 0.424 ) - 131 laps
7 . V. Liuzzi - Red Bull Ferrari RB2 - 1:04.914 (+ 0.683 ) - 169 laps
8 . J. Villeneuve - BMW Sauber F1.06 - 1:04.961 (+ 0.730 ) - 50 laps
9 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.06 - 1:05.398 (+ 1.167 ) - 121 laps
10 . O. Panis - Toyota TF106 - 1:05.867 (+ 1.636 ) - 43 laps.