De la Rosa tries Force India

McLaren Mercedes third driver Pedro de la Rosa tested with the Force India team at Barcelona on Tuesday.

But Spaniard props up timesheets on day two in Barcelona

Pedro de la Rosa tested with the Force India team at Barcelona on Tuesday, leading to inevitable speculation linking McLaren's third driver with a race seat for next season. The Spaniard's appearance in Force India's garage at the Circuit de Catalunya came just days after they agreed a five-year technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes. The deal will see the latter pair supply Force India with a complete drivetrain (engine and gearbox) package next season, together with a KERS (kinetic energy recovery system). During the partnership's announcement, Force India co-owner Vijay Mallya said that McLaren would advise them on all aspects of F1 including drivers - the billionaire businessman stressing that any final decision regarding the team's line-up would be his. A spokesman for the Silverstone-based team played down de la Rosa's appearance in the cockpit, pointing out that the 37-year-old had been a test driver for Force India's predecessors Jordan in 1998. "Pedro is an old friend of the team," he said. "It's an opportunity for a fresh face to put a new perspective on an old car." In the event, De la Rosa, who tested for McLaren on Monday, propped up the timesheets with the 16th quickest time, with current race driver Adrian Sutil ninth quickest overall. The team's other race driver, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, is scheduled to test alongside de la Rosa on Wednesday. This week will mark Force India's last on-track appearance of the year as the team, who have been using Ferrari power, will not be able to use their Mercedes engines until January. Sebastian Vettel went quickest overall for Red Bull on Tuesday, the German lapping the 4.655 km circuit in a time of one minute 19.751 seconds. Toro Rosso hopefuls Takuma Sato - the quickest driver overall on Monday - Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdais were respectively second, third and fourth fastest ahead of McLaren's Gary Paffett.

Ugly

Meanwhile, BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was sixth fastest in an interim car test driver Christian Klien has labelled the ugliest he has ever seen. The Swiss-German outfit is currently running 2008 cars modified with bodywork designed to conform with new rules, as well as the new KERS system and slick tyres. The bodywork, consisting of a high and narrow rear wing along with a wide and low front end, has been designed to help encourage cars to overtake each other. "To me, for the moment, it's the worst Formula One car I have ever seen. It just doesn't fit together," Klien told autosport.com. "But we will get used to it. There will be a lot of modifications until the first race in March." Barcelona testing, day two: 1 S. Vettel Red Bull 01:19.751 70 laps
2 T. Sato Toro Rosso 01:20.017 79 laps
3 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 01:20.034 48 laps
4 S. Buemi Toro Rosso 01:20.223 99 laps
5 G. Paffett McLaren 01:21.340 77 laps
6 R. Kubica BMW 01:21.521 76 laps
7 N. Rosberg Williams 01:21.525 113 laps
8 J. Button Honda 01:21.770 110 laps
9 A. Sutil Force India F1 01:22.073 59 laps
10 L. Di Grassi Honda 01:22.283 110 laps
11 N. Piquet Jr. Renault 01:22.348 85 laps
12 L. Badoer Ferrari 01:22.425 127 laps
13 M. Gené Ferrari 01:22.772 31 laps
14 N. Heidfeld BMW 01:22.945 81 laps
15 G. van der Garde Renault 01:23.250 37 laps
16 P. de la Rosa Force India F1 01:23.499 86 laps All times unofficial