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Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel headed the pack on day one of the Jerez test - the final test prior to the summer testing ban.

Drivers and teams had to cope with a track temperature exceeding 50 degrees celsius at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in the south of Spain.

Vettel, who set a fastest time of the day of 1:19.844 seconds in the morning, completed 94 laps in total, getting through his entire programme without any technical glitches.

Aero testing followed by mechanical work were the first items on the agenda for the German, before he evaluated some new brake materials and then switched back to aero work.

He will now spend Wednesday working on Bridgestone's new 2009 spec slick tyres.

Meanwhile, Gary Paffett was 'best of the rest' for McLaren-Mercedes, coming in at 1:20.179. He did 80 tours and fine-tuned a wide number of aero components, as well as looking at different suspension setups.

Scuderia's Luca Badoer was third and will be keen to try and make some significant progress this week ahead of the Hungarian GP after less than impressive runs in Britain and Germany.

Badoer worked on two main areas; the morning was dedicated to comparing various different aerodynamic solutions, while in the afternoon he ran slick, modfied tyres in preparation for the 2009 season.

Williams tester Nico Hulkenberg was fourth, as the Grove-based operation looked towards Budapest's round 11 of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Further down the order Sebastien Buemi was fifth for Red Bull, just four hundredths slower in his RB4. He had a good day and completed his entire programme, working mainly on suspension, as well as carrying out other development work, both short and long term. He also did 110 laps - the most of all drivers - and 39 more than Romain Grosjean, who was next up in the works powered Renault.

"It was my first time here in Jerez and so I had to learn the track this morning and worked gradually with the team improving the car throughout the day. It still feels amazing to drive this car and I was glad to have the chance to work with the team again," said Grosjean.

"It was quite difficult today because of the high temperatures, but I really enjoyed driving this circuit with the mix of high and low-speed corners. I'm now really, really looking forward to observing the team for the next couple of days to learn as much as I can."

"It was the second day of running we have done with Romain and he did a good job on a circuit that was new to him," added Renault's chief test engineer, Christian Silk. "We concentrated on getting him comfortable with the car and he coped well with the difficult track conditions caused by the heat, which made the balance of the car quite tricky.

"Running in the heat may have been difficult, but some of the races coming up, such as Hungary, are traditionally very hot and some of the things we have learned today will be relevant for those races."

The four-day Jerez test continues on Wednesday, with Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Renault and Red Bull Racing bringing in Kimi Raikkonen, Pedro de la Rosa, Nico Rosberg, Nelson Piquet and Mark Webber respectively.

Jarno Trulli, Sebastian Vettel and Christian Klien will all run for a second day. Force India will join proceedings on day two too, where they will test a new quick shift gearbox.

Crash.net / Eurosport