Fernando Alonso took little time to get fully up to speed with his new Ferrari team on Wednesday, after setting the quickest time of this week's Formula 1 test.
In front of an estimated 25,000-strong crowd who had poured into the Valencia circuit to catch a glimpse of Alonso's first official run for Ferrari, the Spaniard was swiftly on the pace in the new F10. His best lap in the cool morning conditions, ideal for quick laps, was a 1m11.599sec – just more than one tenth quicker than teammate Felipe Massa had managed during his first two days of running with the new car.
Behind Alonso after the morning's running was Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa, who continued to show good speed from the C29 that has been one of the surprises of this week's test in Valencia.
Michael Schumacher, who had been the center of attention this week as he made his official comeback to F1 action, was third quickest as he continued development work with the Mercedes GP W01.
World Champion Jenson Button also got his first taste of the new McLaren, as he took the track with the MP4-25 for the first time – having spent a lot of the first morning working on his seating position and car settings in the garage.