Brazilian heads pack as sun shines.

Rubens Barrichello set the pace at the Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday as testing moved into its second day at the track, venue for next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix - the first European event of the year.

Barrichello completed 79 tours in total, his best a 1 minute 18.928 seconds, which was around eighth tenths up on his nearest rival and three tenths off the best time of the week to date - a 1m 18.613s, which was posted by Felipe Massa on day one.

Like Felipe on Monday though, Rubens was using slick tyres, as Bridgestone continues it preparations for 2009, when grooved rubber will become a thing of the past.

Giancarlo Fisichella meanwhile was second best for Force India, and he too posted his best time on the slicks. However he was also quick on the grooved rubber and managed a more representative time of 1m 20.7s, something that demonstrates the Silverstone-based outfit is making progress.

"The car went much better this time out than the last time we tested in Barcelona, which you can see in the considerable improvement in our lap times," said Fisi. "This is largely due to the new parts we have introduced since the start of the season and the last time we were here.

"I tested the new 2009 slick tyres here today - which was the reason for my fastest lap - but we were also much quicker on the 2008 grooved rubber too. The best lap we did here in February was a 1min 22.3 and now we are at 1min 20.7, so we're really moving forward."

Next up was Massa, but unlike on the first day, he was focusing on preparations for the fourth round in the championship and as such did not use the slick tyres. He completed 113 laps, his best a 1m 20.283s, while also evaluating some new aerodynamic solutions. Michael Schumacher will drive the F2008 on day three.

Further down the order David Coulthard came in fourth, six hundredths up on fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton. DC tested new aero parts in the morning before focusing on suspension development in the afternoon. He also completed a series of long and short runs to evaluate car set-up and tyres. Mark Webber will now conclude Red Bull's programme and pilot the RB4 on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lewis for his part replaced Pedro de la Rosa and in addition to working on set-up for the Spanish GP, also ran with some new components fitted to his MP4-23. The Englishman managed 97 laps in total.

Fernando Alonso trailed his old team-mate in sixth, two tenths further back and the Spaniard had a very productive day - completing 119 laps in total, the most of anyone runner, despite a 'slight interruption' after lunch.

The Spaniard continued with the evaluation of upgrades, which included a revised engine cover and updated suspension components and he will remain in the car on day three.

"The car felt good today and we seemed reasonably competitive. But we have to remember that a lot of the teams were running slick tyres and so we should not concentrate too much on the times," said Alonso.

"We are certainly improving the car and we tried out some new aerodynamic parts today which went well. We managed to do 119 laps, which is two race distances, and so we are quite happy, but there is more to do tomorrow."

"Again the programme went very well today and we have a lot of data that we will go through this evening," added Renault's chief test engineer, Christian Silk. "The whole factory made a great effort to get all the new parts ready for this test and we made the most of them today.

"Also the mechanics worked very well on the car which enabled us to do a lot of running on the circuit. Tomorrow we will continue with the programme and see what more we can find."

Of the rest Nico Rosberg was seventh in his Williams-Toyota, fractionally ahead of Timo Glock: "Nico Rosberg took over the FW30 today and concentrated on running the 2009 Bridgestone slick tyres gathering valuable data ahead of next year," explained, Williams test team manager, Dickie Stanford. "The day ran smoothly, with no major problems and we'll continue with Nico tomorrow."

Timo also got a go with the new slick tyres, although only late in the afternoon, as he spent most of his time focusing on set-up for the Spanish Grand Prix, along with doing some damper and suspension work.

"This has been a positive two days of testing for me. We spent the morning continuing our set-up work for the Spanish Grand Prix and collecting data on various systems. We're going in the right direction so we hope that can help us next week," he stated.

"Towards the end of the day we tried the new slick tyres for next year. We gathered some important information but we still need to learn more. For now I am more focused on the current situation, in particular the race here next weekend. The work we have done here will hopefully make us well prepared."

"Today we had a busy programme with a variety of different elements," continued Gerd Pfeiffer, Toyota's test team manager. "In the morning we kept up our work on set-up for the Spanish Grand Prix, along with some tests on other parts including dampers and suspension. We continued that work after lunch before switching late in the afternoon to the slick tyres that are going to be introduced in 2009. Overall we made it through everything we had planned and collected useful data."

The only other runner on track was BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, slowest on a 1m 20.981s. Despite seemingly being off the pace though the team insisted it had no 'noteworthy problems'.

Indeed at no point did Heidfeld run with the 2009 tyres - just like Massa, Hamilton and Alonso - and instead he focused solely on next weekend's grand prix, trying out different aerodynamic and mechanical options and apparently making 'good progress' with the development of the F1.08. Robert Kubica will now run on days 3 and 4.

Testing now continues on Wednesday, when Scuderia Toro Rosso is due to join the fold. Super Aguri are not expected to run this week.

To see the testing times in full click here