Michael Schumacher has got back behind the wheel of the Ferrari F2008 in Barcelona as the Scuderia work through their final track test prior to the start of the 2008 F1 season in Melbourne.

After a two day break, testing resumed on Monday morning for Scuderia Ferrari at the Catalunya Circuit, near Barcelona, in preparation for the start of the 2008 World Championship. This test is the final one of the close season with the start of the season now just 16 days away.

Having recovered, after not being able to run last week, having been slightly indisposed, Kimi Raikkonen took to the track at the wheel of an F2008, fitted with the latest aerodynamic updates. Alongside him was a special test driver in the shape of Michael Schumacher, the German former Ferrari driver taking part in F1 testing once again.

On a day when the weather was not at its best - a wet track for almost the entire morning - the day's work centred mainly on the overall reliability of the car, as well as set-up testing. By the end of Monday Raikkonen had covered 82 laps and posted the second best time, a lap in 1:22.319, while Schumacher turned in 83 laps, his quickest time, 1:22.428, being good enough for third on the timesheets. Fastest time of the day went to Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) with a time of 1:22.276 while the Williams-Toyota impressed with Kazuki Nakajima setting fourth best time while team mate Nico Rosberg was sixth.

Also taking to the Spanish track for the first time yesterday was the new Ferrari-powered Force India VJM01, the first F1 car to be built by the new team that has been born out of the Spyker outfit. The team had a successful first day with German Adrian Sutil who will drive for the Kingfisher sponsored outfit this year winding up in ninth place and reserve driver Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi three places further back in twelfth.

“Today was a very productive day today considering we were running new parts and an aero package we hadn't tested before,” commented Team Director Mike Gascoyne. “We were running 60 percent of the aero package we will use in Australia, and it seemed to go well.”

Today saw the second day of testing this week for Ferrari, working once again at the Circuit de Catalunya. Felipe Massa took to the track today in place of Schumacher, alongside world champion Raikkonen. Both drivers worked on the development of the F2008 and on preparations for the start of the season, with Massa also completing successfully a race simulation.

Raikkonen covered 72 laps, his quickest being a 1:21.722 which put him third fastest while Massa turned in a best time of 1:22.513 during his 102 laps on the track and was fourth fastest. The quickest drivers today were the two McLaren-Mercedes pilots with Lewis Hamilton (1:21.234) edging out his new team mate Heikke Kovalainen (1:21.443).

Both the Finn and the Brazilian will be back on track tomorrow for Ferrari for the final day of official testing prior to the start of the 2008 F1 World Championship in Melbourne, Australia on 16th March.