The best car I've ever had

Fernando Alonso has hailed this year's Ferrari F10 as the "the best car I've ever had".

The Spaniard, who left Renault in favour of Ferrari in the off-season in the hope of adding to his two World titles, spent the past two days putting the team's new F10 through its paces at Jerez.

And although Alonso wasn't the quickest of the bunch on either day, he put in some impressive times during his long-distance runs as Ferrari focused on race simulations.

"There are no reasons to be pessimistic," the double World Champion told the Spanish media. "As of today, this is the best car I've ever had.

"The two days that I tested it was sunny and the track was dry and I could work more than I thought so I'm very happy. We have done a good job in terms of reliability and long runs."

The Spaniard also hinted that Ferrari have yet to show their true pace on low fuel loads, something he reckons both Red Bull and McLaren have already done.

While Red Bull's Mark Webber set the fastest time on Friday, McLaren's Jenson Button blitzed that on Saturday when he clocked a 1:18.871, the fastest time seen at Jerez this year.

However, Alonso isn't worried. Instead, he reckons it's Ferrari's rivals who should watch out.

"Red Bull, McLaren and Renault have been very quick and they have shown their cards, while we are still hiding ours," he said.

"We are going to analyse the data, but we are very optimistic. As of today, if I were in a different team I would be looking at Ferrari because everything is going very well.

"Maybe where Ferrari needs to improve is in the short runs with little fuel onboard. That's where the Red Bull and the McLaren have been quicker, and they will be the reference to try and improve the F10 in the next test in Barcelona."

McLaren duo showing good pace

F1 world champion Jenson Button again raised McLaren hopes ahead of the new season with a test-best performance at Jerez.

As team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished last week's four-day session at the southern Spain venue with the best time on the final day, so Button followed suit at the culmination of this week's programme.

Executing a series of short runs in the morning, the 30-year-old posted the quickest lap of the eight days of testing overall with a time of one minute and 18.871 seconds.

That proved to be just over four tenths of a second quicker than the previous best set by Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber on Friday, and 0.7secs ahead of Hamilton's hot lap from last week.

Button finished the day 0.243secs clear of Renault's Robert Kubica as the Pole concluded the running in the Jerez with the second-best lap over the two weeks.

Kamui Kobayashi and Vitantonio Liuzzi underlined the potential of the Sauber and Force India respectively as they finished third and fourth on the day, 0.317secs and 0.779secs adrift of Button.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg was fifth, just over a second down, with team principal Ross Brawn happy so far with his team's progress.

"The past two weeks in Jerez have seen an intensive period of testing for the team," said Brawn.

"It is very pleasing to have ended the test programme with two days of very valuable dry running for Nico and Michael (Schumacher).

"Although the conditions haven't been ideal over the two tests, we have been able to make good progress on the set-up of the car and completed a number of our systems evaluations.

"We still have a great deal of work ahead of us in Barcelona next week, but overall we're looking in good shape for the start of the season."

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, cheered on by a sizeable local crowd, was sixth in his Ferrari, followed by Jaime Alguersuari for Toro Rosso and then Webber, with Williams' Nico Hulkenberg ninth.

In the ongoing battle of the new teams, Virgin Racing again had the edge on Lotus Racing in terms of lap time, with Timo Glock a second quicker than Jarno Trulli on his maiden outing in the latter car.

But in terms of reliability, Lotus are comprehensively winning that fight as veteran Trulli managed a test-high for all the drivers with 141 laps.

In contrast, Glock was restricted to just 28 as a hydraulic issue that has dogged the team all week again compromised their running.

The teams conclude testing with a four-day run in Barcelona from Thursday through to Sunday of next week ahead of the opening grand prix in Bahrain on

Force India in right direction

Paul di Resta is convinced Force India have made a step in the right direction following his first outing for the team.

In his official role as test driver, Di Resta took control of the VJM03 for the majority of the first day of the third pre-season Formula One test in Jerez, completing 76 laps.

The 23-year-old from Scotland posted the eighth quickest time with a lap of one minute 25.088 seconds, finishing 2.5secs adrift of pacesetter Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull Racing.

After earning his new position following a superb performance at a young driver test in December behind the wheel of last year's Force India, Di Resta can sense the difference between the two cars.

"Today was my first run in the new car and it felt pretty good," assessed Di Resta.

"The objective was to get as much running as possible and we managed over 300 kilometres, which was a great effort, particularly given the bad weather conditions we had over the morning.

"It seemed to be drying out and then the rain would return again so you were in a sort of no man's land with the tyres.

"Even with this type of weather though, I could get an impression of the car.

"It seems stable and good all round, a genuine improvement on the car I drove last year.

"I'll be back in the car in Barcelona (next week) and I am looking forward to it already."

As part of his development this season, Force India are to allow Di Resta time in the car during Friday practice of grands prix weekends.