By Nick Sparkes
January 11 2006

Pedro de la Rosa took his newly painted, V10 McLaren to the top of the times during the second day of testing. Michael Schumacher finishing second for Ferrari, the fastest V8. Behind came Zonta in his TF106, whilst the two Toyota race drivers Ralf and Jarno ended the day 7th and 12th. On a day where only Midland were absent, all the teams gave their 2006 campaign a kick-start. McLaren, returning to their orange colour scheme, finished the day fastest with yesterday’s top man Michael Schumacher 1.5 seconds behind, although using the 2006 spec V8 engine. Ricardo Zonta rounded off the laps in his 2006 machine to finish half a second behind Michael.

Fernando Alonso continued to use the teams 2005 car, with a limited V10 engine, to finish the day fourth, whilst the new Renault R26 in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth. Between the two was Nick Heidfeld's white BMW.

Ralf Schumacher found himself in the middle of the pack in seventh, whilst Nico Rosberg continued to test Williams' Cosworth V8 as well as learning the art of driving a Formula One car quickly, the young challenger ended up eighth.

Honda began their 2006 challenge with newly signed Anthony Davidson finishing just within the top ten in ninth whilst James Rossiter also running in the Honda concept car finished eleventh.

Alex Wurz made his first appearance in a Williams, although he was outpaced by his team mate Rosberg all day, Wurz's first day at the office ended in fifteenth place.

Gary Paffett ran for the first time this year as an official McLaren test driver, the Brit finishing his first day thirteenth with a V10 engine. Jarno Trulli was also making a welcome return, the Italian was  putting in the miles in his TF106, yet finished way behind his team mates in twelfth place.

Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard again struggled with his new RB2, the new machine ran into difficulties like yesterday and only managed 30 laps, whilst Adrian Newey watched for the first time in the Red Bull Racing garage.

Testing continues tomorrow.

1	P. de la Rosa	McLaren		01:16.509	86
2	M. Schumacher	Ferrari		01:17.970	53
3	R. Zonta	Toyota		01:18.541	71
4	F. Alonso	Renault		01:18.607	104
5	N. Heidfeld	BMW		01:18.817	56
6	G. Fisichella	Renault		01:19.118	65
7	R. Schumacher	Toyota		01:19.189	35
8	N. Rosberg	Williams		01:19.394	50
9	A. Davidson	Honda		01:19.427	112
10	L. Badoer	Ferrari		01:19.774	94
11	J. Rossiter	Honda		01:19.891	104
12	J. Trulli	Toyota		01:19.975	18
13	G. Paffett	McLaren		01:20.137	81
14	V. Liuzzi	Scuderia Toro Rosso		01:20.211	90
15	A. Wurz	Williams		01:20.749	31
16	D. Coulthard	Red Bull		01:21.199	30