Felipe Massa was fastest at Jerez as the F1 teams reconvened following a six-day break since the last test in Valencia.

Inevitably, most talk was about Robert Kubica and the spare Lotus Renault GP seat, and Nick Heidfeld was on hand to watch Vitaly Petrov in the R31 that he will drive this weekend. Bruno Senna, Tonio Liuzzi and Pedro de la Rosa were also present in the paddock Thursday.

The team was relieved to get back to work after the turbulent few days since Kubica’s rally crash.

“After a difficult few days, it’s good for the team to be back at the track and to have our minds focused on developing the car,” said team boss Eric Boullier. “Things went pretty well, but it’s early days and there is still so much for us to learn about the new car, especially at a track like Jerez with some high-speed corners. We had a small oil leak on the car in the morning, which kept us in the garage for a while, but the aero program went well today and has taught us some useful things.”

McLaren, Virgin and Force India gave their new cars their first proper circuit runs, while the only absentee was HRT, the team preferring to undertake filming duties with the old car for Pirelli at Monza.

As well as being fastest, Massa also completed more mileage than anyone else, logging 101 laps on the red car. Second fastest was the Sauber of Sergio Perez, the Mexican continuing to find his feet in the Swiss team, while Mark Webber was third for Red Bull.

“It was pretty good today,” said the Australian. “There were a few red flags, but we did almost 100 laps and the car ran well. On the performance side I think we’re going OK; it’s very early and you don’t know who’s doing what, but we’re focusing on ourselves and seem to be going in the right direction.”

His countryman Daniele Ricciardo was fourth in the Toro Rosso, before handing the car to regular race driver Jaime Alguersuari.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth in his first go with the new McLaren, while Adrian Sutil drove the Force India, and Timo Glock the Virgin.

Mercedes continues to set modest times, but Nico Rosberg remains positive.

“We had a reasonable day and I was able to complete quite a few laps, which is positive,” said Rosberg. “It’s important for both me and the team to get good mileage, and we’re really learning about the car all the time. We had a few little issues, which you always expect from a new car, so we just have to keep putting the miles on it.

“The KERS was working well and having more time to get used to the system is a real help; it’s not just a question of using the buttons but also understanding the effect of the KERS under braking. We are starting to understand the tires better and that will be one of the key factors to success over the race weekends.”

Pastor Maldonado did no proper flying laps in the Williams after a problem with the moveable rear wing mechanism. The team focused instead on aero work,