Heikki Kovalainen ended the pre-Hungarian Grand Prix test fastest of all as McLarens strong recent form continued at Jerez. The Finn set both the final day's, and the whole weeks, benchmark time of 1m18.385s on the 10th lap out of a mammoth 116 as the in-form team continued its evaluation of its latest aerodynamic developments, including the distinctive antler wings. Another team that enjoyed an impressive week was Toro Rosso and Sebastien Bourdais remained second on the times during the afternoon. The Frenchman completed 113 trouble-free laps in the STR3, spending the morning assessing its Spa-spec rear wing before switching to slick tyre evaluations in the afternoon. "The day went quite well," he said. "Running the '09 tyres was very interesting, even if a combination of a very abrasive track surface and a 50 degree track temperature, meant they did not last very long! We have also come up with some useful data for Hungary and to be honest that's the most important thing about this test, as 2009 is still a long way away." With the timesheet once again remaining fairly static following the cooler morning running, Red Bull's David Coulthard held position in third as he focused solely on preparation work for the forthcoming races. Renault tester Romain Grosjean shaved six thousandths of a second off his morning time to keep hold of fourth place for the Enstone squad, albeit 1.2s off Kovalainens pace. The young Frenchman concluded the teams evaluations of the R28's new suspension components. Indeed the final day saw several further new parts tested on different cars, with Ferrari following the recent trend of running a shark fin engine cover. Felipe Massas F2008 sported the increasingly popular aero device in the afternoon in Spain, and the Brazilian ended the day in fifth with a best time of 1m19.611s. Sixth place went to Williamss Kazuki Nakajima after hitting a century of laps, ahead of BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. BMW concluded its weeks work by concentrating on aerodynamic and mechanical set-up work with the F1.08, as the team maintained its usual low-key approach to tests. The Germans day was slightly disrupted, however, after the sensors failed on his car which ground him to a halt on track in the morning. While most teams concentrated on assessing their latest aero developments, Force India used this week to try out its seamless-shift gearbox for the first time. And after four days of running it in its VJM01 car, Adrian Sutil who used it for the first time on Friday was happy with the performance gains delivered. 'Today was quite a good day, he said. This morning I was very happy with the balance of the car and enjoyed testing the seamless shift box for the first time. We had a few small problems towards the middle of the day, but overall it felt good and it seemed like a step forward. Like Ferrari, Honda gave its RA108 the shark fin treatment and Jenson Button wound up ninth after 98 laps. Toyotas Kamui Kobayshai brought up the times following a day book-ended by disruptions. After going off into the gravel at the final corner during the days opening hour, his in TF108 later stopped on track with minutes to go in the session. Fridays final session marked the last test outing for F1 teams until the pre-Italian Grand Prix test at Monza in late August, with the traditional summer testing ban now kicking in. Testing times from Jerez (Friday 25 July) 1. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m18.385s 2. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m18.830s 3. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m19.494s 4. GROSJEAN Renault 1m19.561s 5. MASSA Ferrari 1m19.611s 6. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m19.724s 7. HEIDFELD BMW 1m19.915s 8. SUTIL Force India 1m19.965s 9. BUTTON Honda 1m20.532s 10. KOBAYASHI Toyota 1m20.878s from ITV
