This was the first time he took part in an official testing event following his accident in Hungary last season, that left him sidelined for the second part of the 2009 campaign.
Second overall in the timing reports was the surprising Pedro de la Rosa, the brand newly-signed driver from BMW Sauber F1. Only a day after revealing the Ferrari-powered C29 to the media, Sauber completed the first day of running in 2nd place, with De la Rosa also leading the pack for a few minutes in the afternoon.
The big hit of the day, however, was Mercedes GP's Michael Schumacher, who completed only 40 laps on Monday but recorded a time only 0.367 seconds slower than Massa (who remained on track for a massive 102 laps). Although absent from the F1 action for over 3 years, the German managed to outpace his younger teammate Nico Rosberg by almost 6 tens of a second by the end of the day.
Rosberg was the first one to take the W01 to the track on Monday, during weather conditions that were slightly poorer than in the afternoon.
Gary Paffett took the McLaren MP4-25 to its first test of the winter on Monday, and completed the day with the 5th best time of the pack, stopping the clock at 1:13.846. Rubens Barrichello had to settle for the 6th best time of the Monday meeting, despite staying on the Spanish track for 75 laps. The Brazilian also experienced a little problem with his car in the afternoon session, when his FW32 stalled in the middle of the track.
Sebastien Buemi ended the day with the fewest laps of testing from all drivers on Monday (18), but not the worst time. He clocked the Ricardo Tormo lap in 1:14.762, 0.238 seconds faster than Renault's Robert Kubica.
Testing in Valencia will resume this morning, with the biggest news of the day being that Lewis Hamilton will take the MP4-25 to the track for the first time this winter. Until then, enjoy the pics from the Monday meeting.
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