Paul Ricard test kicks off

(GMM) A major four day formula one test kicked off on Tuesday morning at Bernie Ecclestone's Paul Ricard circuit in southern France.

At the lunch break, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was in front, ahead of Nico Rosberg (Williams), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), and nine other runners including Christian Klien (Honda), Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), Timo Glock (BMW) and Fairuz Fauzy (Spyker).

Super Aguri's new tester James Rossiter also made his debut in the SA07, and Nelson Piquet Jr turned laps for Renault. All eleven teams are in action.

Sebastien Bourdais is scheduled to run for STR on Wednesday.

Later this week, the configuration will switch to low-downforce to help teams adapt for the subsequent Canadian GP.