Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing went quickest of all 2009 cars on the first day of testing at Jerez on Tuesday. Sebastien Buemi topped the time sheet for Scuderia Toro Rosso with their 2008 car. Vettel easily outpaced the opposition, running comfortably in front of Williams and McLaren throughout the day.

“We had a failure of one of the sensors in the gearbox and we stopped the car to avoid any damage,” said Vettel. Nico Hulkenberg ended the day less than three tenths of a second behind Vettel, running with an inactive KERS unit in his car. Heikki Kovalainen was fourth fastest for McLaren as he continued evaluation of the MP4-24.

Renault’s Nelson Piquet managed to close down the gap to his rivals at the end of the day but still finished at the bottom of the timesheets. “It’s a shame that we lost some track time today because at this stage of the season we need to get as many miles on the car as possible,” said Piquet.

Unofficial times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:19.660  104
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:22.177   61
 3.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:22.443   82
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.643   58
 5.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:23.313   35