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VALENCIA, Spain — Ferrari teammates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso topped all three days in Valencia where seven teams ran their new 2010 cars in the first of four preseason test sessions.

While the new Ferrari F10 is quick, comparing test lap times is trickier than ever.

“It was difficult in the past to judge how competitive you were, but now it is impossible because of the fuel capacities,” veteran Pedro de la Rosa told National Speed Sport News in Valencia. “But I am very impressed by Ferrari and by Fernando. He jumps in the car on his first day, and bang, a 1:11.4. I don’t know how much fuel he was running, but it was a pretty quick lap. They seem to be the fastest team out there.”

With refueling banned this season, the cars will start the race with about 42 gallons of fuel compared to 16 to 21 gallons in recent years. The difference in lap times from a full tank to an empty one is four to five seconds.

Most teams in Valencia tested with about 21 gallons to give the drivers and engineers an average idea how the cars will react from full to empty tanks. Still, the varying fuel loads could easily skew test times. Furthermore, this test was to shake the new cars down and get data baselines rather than going for fast laps.

The BMW Sauber C29 also looked competitive, but it is believed the team ran with an average of 16 gallons of fuel, as most teams did when testing last year, so that it could directly compare its 2009 and 2010 cars.

Lewis Hamilton was thrilled with the McLaren MP4-25.

“It was a night and day difference feeling compared to the first lap in the first test day in 2009,” he said. “All the problems I had in general in the last car I don’t have with this one.”

Some 35,000 fans turned out on the final day of the test. Spain’s Alonso was the top draw, but Michael Schumacher’s return was big news as well. A total of 460 members of the media — TV, print, radio and Internet — were in Valencia.

The times:
1. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari F10, 1:11.470; 2. Felipe Massa, Ferrari F10, 1:11.722; 3. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber C29, 1:12.056; 4. Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber C29, 1:12.094; 5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-25, 1:12.256; 6. Robert Kubica, Renault R30, 1:12.426; 7. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes W01, 1:12.438; 8. Jamie Alguersuari, Toro Rossa STR5, 1:12.576; 9. Nick Rosberg, Mercedes W01, 1:12.899; 10. Jenson Button, McLaren MP4-25, 1:12.951; 11. Vitaly Petrov, Renault R30, 1:13.097; 12. Rubens Barrichello, Williams FW32, 1:13.377; 13. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams FW32, 1:13.669; 14. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR5, 1:13.823; 15. Gary Paffett, McLaren MP4-25, 1:13.846.