Buemi and Hartley at work for Red Bull

The final test session of 2008 got underway today at Jerez de la Frontera, with Red Bull Racing running two cars; one for Sebastien Buemi and the other for the young New Zealander, Brendon Hartley.

Apart from a Show Run and some straight line testing, this was the Kiwi's first ever proper F1 test and he acquitted himself very well, completing more laps than planned. His only mistake was missing the pit lane entry at the end of his very first lap. He set the third fastest time today.

"This has been an amazing experience," commented Hartley after his first full day of testing a Formula 1 car. "The first run was really difficult, just in terms of the mind speeding up, as everything's going so much faster than normal. There's a lot of things to think about with button's and radio calls, but I got more and more confident with the car and it was going well by the end of the day. It's a dream come true really. I've been working for this all my life and it's
been unbelievable."

As for Buemi, he continued where he left off when he set the fastest times on all three test days at the same track last week at the wheel of a Toro Rosso car. He got through his full programme which centred on data measurement in the morning and 2009 brake evaluation in the afternoon. He had a slight off at Turn 9, caught out by rain on the artificial grass, but the damage was soon repaired.

It's a double Seb day tomorrow, as Buemi is joined by Sebastian Vettel, who takes over from Hartley.