4 Formula 1 teams commenced their first track testing in 2006 at Jerez today. Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and Red Bull were present today with 5 more teams expected to join tomorrow.

Michael Schumacher driving the F2004 fitted with a V8 engine set the fastest time of the day with a 1:18.020. This is the fastest time set so far at the Jerez track with a V8 engine. Toyota's test driver Ricardo Zonta was second with Ralf Schumacher in 3rd.
Michael Schumacher also covered the most number of laps with 82 laps.

The day saw the debut of the V8 powered Renault R26. Giancarlo Fisichella did the initial shakedown and covered 39 laps.

His fastest time was a 1:20.555.

Fisichella described the car as 'having a lot of potential'. He said "We had a very promising first day with the R26. I felt comfortable straight away, and the programme was to do as much mileage as possible, while proceeding with all the checks you have to do on a new car. This wasn't a day to go for lap-times, and it was hard to get the tyres working in the cold temperatures. The V8 engine felt very good, similar to our predictions and it was reliable for the first run. My first impression is that this is a car with a lot of potential."

Ricardo Zonta had an off during the session while David Coulthard in the Red Bull Racing stopped on the track with a repeat of the same cooling problems they encountered at the shakedown in Silverstone last December.

The rest of the Formula 1 teams with the exception of MF1 Racing are expected to join tomorrow.

Weather conditions were partly cloudy with air temperature reaching 16 degrees while track temperatures reached 21 degrees.

Best Lap Times and lap records at Testing Tracks

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9

Formula 1 Team notes below

Driver	Team	Best Lap	Number of Laps
Michael Schumacher	Ferrari V8	1:18.020	82
Ricardo Zonta	Toyota V8*	1:19.348	66
Ralf Schumacher	Toyota V8*	1:19.866	59
Fernando Alonso	Renault V10	1:19.929	61
Luca Badoer	Ferrari V10	1:20.091	63
Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault V8*	1:20.555	39
David Coulthard	Red Bull Racing V8*	1:21.986	31