Sebastian Vettel got his Red Bull Racing career off to a flier in Barcelona where he topped the testing timesheets.

The German, who has left Toro Rosso in favour of Red Bull, put the RB4 through its pace, clocking a 1min 19.751secs lap around the Circuit de Catalunya.

That put him just over a quarter of a second ahead of Monday's pace-setter Takuma Sato. The Japanese driver, who is hoping to land a Toro Rosso race-seat for next year's championship, posted a 1:20.017 to beat his rivals for the drive, Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi.

It was an impressive showing from Toro Rosso, although their cars were fitted out to the 2008 specifications and not next year's.

Fifth place went to McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, who finished just under half a second off Vettel's pace as he tried out the Woking outfit's new Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS).

Robert Kubica in the rather different-looking interim BMW, which features a long, flat front wing and a short, high back wing, was sixth quickest ahead of Nico Rosberg. Like Kubica he was also driving a interim car, fitted out to next year's aero specs.

Jenson Button completed the top eight for Honda.

Pedro de la Rosa, driving the Force India for the first time, was the slowest driver of the day.

Although Force India have both Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil on the books, the team is believed to be set to drop one of them to make way for McLaren test driver de la Rosa as part of the team's deal with the Woking outfit.

Earlier this month Force India agreed a technical-support deal with McLaren that will see the championship-winning team providing the backmarker outfit with engines, gearboxes and the new KERS system.

In return Force India team boss Vijay Mallya has conceded that McLaren may play a role in the final decision regarding his 2009 driver line-up.

Times
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 01:19.751 70 laps
02 T. Sato Toro Rosso 01:20.017 79 laps
03 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 01:20.034 48 laps
04 S. Buemi Toro Rosso 01:20.223 99 laps
05 G. Paffett McLaren 01:21.340 77 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 01:21.521 76 laps
07 N. Rosberg Williams 01:21.525 113 laps
08 J. Button Honda 01:21.770 110 laps
09 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