Montmelo (Barcelona), 7 May

On the day that the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars carried decals celebrating one and a half centuries of Italian Unity, between them, Felipe Massa and Fernando completed nearly a century of laps during the three hours of free practice: the Spaniard, whose every appearance was greeted by fans chanting his name, did a total of 49, ending the day fourth fastest, with the Brazilian completing two less than his team-mate to post the eighth time.

The Scuderia job sheet produced by the engineers was one of the busiest we have seen this season: of course there was all the usual work of doing the tyre compare, evaluating set-up and so forth, but on top of that, the new type of rear wing and its management system, which until today had only been tried on the bench and in one day of straight-line aero testing, was given its first real track test. In addition, there were other minor aero updates to be evaluated and, because in-season testing is banned, other components were run with a view to more long-term development. The day went well with no technical issues and so the team can now spend a long night deciding the best way to proceed for qualifying and the race. The championship might have made the big trip back to Europe, but it does not look as though there are going to be any big changes in the hierarchy of the teams, with it all being very close at the top.

At the top today at the end of the afternoon session were the two Red Bull Racing cars; Sebastian Vettel ahead of Mark Webber. Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes, just fractionally quicker than Fernando on their respective best laps. Lewis Hamilton was fifth for McLaren with Robert Kubica completing the top six for Renault.