The Brazilian Grand Prix might still be fresh in everyone’s memory, but like all the other teams, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s focus is already on the 2009 season. With that in mind, there was a two-fold purpose to this first day of a three day session: assessing the slick tyres to be used next year and also assessing potential drivers.

Dealing with the human element first, both Takuma Sato and Sebastien Buemi completed a high number of laps - making no mistakes - which was commendable, given that both have limited experience of the STR3 package.

However, the fact they finished the day fastest and second fastest means even less than usual. Test times are always hard to evaluate, but today, there was probably a bigger discrepancy between the car configurations used by the teams and, for Toro Rosso, the only concession to the new 2009 aerodynamic rules, was to run with less downforce.

As for the tyres, Bridgestone brought its two hardest 2009 slicks and both spent the entire day on the softer of the two. The results were encouraging the team stated, as Sato and Buemi performed consistently, allowing the team to try various mechanical set up changes to see how they affected performance.

Buemi continues testing all day tomorrow, while Sato will run in the morning, before handing over to Sebastien Bourdais.