Webber set for Grand Prix

He ended any fitness questions over his broken leg when he jumped into the Red Bull RB5 in Spain on Thursday and rattled off 83 laps in his new grand prix racer.

Webber was third-fastest of the drivers testing at Jerez, behind Sebastian Buemi who was quickest again in last year's Toro Rosso and Heikki Kovalainen in the 2009 McLaren-Mercedes.

He also made sure that his new team mate, Sebastian Vettel, had nothing to do for the day as the young German could only sit in the pits on standby in case of some sort of problem for the speedy Australia.

"There were a lot of questions going into today and I answered them," Webber said after his successful return to the track.

"I'm very relieved of course. It has been a tough few months for me, but I've had good people around me and the team have been fantastic as well.

"From my point of view, it all went better than expected and to do over a race distance on my first day back in the cockpit, with several weeks to go to Melbourne, is a good thing."

Webber was also happy that the RB5 ran reliably and allowed his team to get through the whole job list for the day. He advanced from basic reliability tests, which Vettel had begun on Tuesday, to more advanced work on the car's aero package and mechanical set-up.

But Red Bull is taking no changes with Webber and Vettel will be back in the car for the third day of the crucial pre-season test.

Webber is upbeat after his first run and is also expected to be back in action as Red Bull ramps-up its pre-Melbourne test work.

"I wasn't going in pessimistically, but F1 cars can be quite ferocious. I knew what to expect, I tried to do what I could. I answered some questions for myself and it turned out to be ok."

Kovalainen's lap at Jerez shows the pace of development on the new-style grand prix cars, as he was more than a second quicker than the previous day before handing over to world champion Lews Hamilton.

Ferrari, BMW-Sauber and Toyota continued their work in Bahrain and, despite a sand storm which cut short their track time, Felipe Massa set the pace ahead of Robert Kubica and Timo Glock. Formula One test times:

Jerez, Spain

1. Sebastian Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:17.591

2. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 1:20.799

3. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:21.321

4. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 1:21.451

5. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 1:21.908

Bahrain

1. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:33.639

2. Robert Kubica, BMW-Sauber, 1:34.398

3. Timo Glock, Toyota, 1:34.902