Kovalainen benefited from a change in aerodynamics

McLaren's car showed signs of improving ahead of the start of the Formula 1 season in Australia on 29 March.

In the penultimate day of final pre-season testing, Heikki Kovalainen set a time of one minute 18.202 seconds around the Jerez circuit in Spain.

The time was faster than that of team-mate and world champion Lewis Hamilton's best of 1:19.121 on Tuesday.

But it is still slower than Brawn GP driver Jenson Button's fastest lap of 1:17.844 set on the same day.

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McLaren said in a statement that Wednesday's running was to evaluate the effectiveness of new aerodynamic modifications and had been "extremely productive".

The team had earlier said that they faced a race against time to get their MP4-24 car to the same level of their rivals before the campaign starts.

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