New Formula One team owner Ross Brawn today admitted he was "extremely pleased" with the performance of his new world title challenger.

His team's car, the Mercedes-powered Brawn BGP-001, concluded it's first test session with a blistering time nearly two seconds faster than the McLaren of defending title holder Lewis Hamilton.

Having seen team-mate Jenson Button top the time sheet at the Circuit de Ca talunya near Barcelona on Wednesday, Rubens Barrichello yesterday went quicker still to stop the clock on 1min 18.926 secs, over 0.8secs better than Nico Rosberg who was second fastest in his Williams-Toyota. Hamilton trailed back in eighth with a best of 1min 20.869.

It is hard to gauge the true pace of the cars in testing because they often run with different set-ups and fuel loads. But Brawn, who bought out the Honda team in a last-minute deal, admitted: "The team made a very late start to our pre-season testing programme, therefore our focus has been on reliability and achieving as much mileage as possible. Both of these aims have been successfully achieved this week."