BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 2, 2008 (AFP) - Veteran driver Giancarlo Fisichella said Formula One debutants Force India had made impressive progress after taking his car to the fourth fastest time in testing here on Friday.

The Italian´s best lap was less than one second slower than the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton who topped the time charts.

On the opening day of the three-day test, Fisichella recorded a best lap of 1min 23.015sec.

"It was a good day today and I think we made a lot of progress," said Fisichella.

"We did some runs to work on set-up and looked at some parts to improve reliability and had no big problems over the day. I felt more comfortable in the car too - we are definitely going in the right direction and the times were pretty good.

"I´m very happy as we´re showing the potential we have now."

Times:

Lewis Hamilton (ENG) McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.263 (84 laps), Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault 1:22.889 (61), Robert Kubica (POL) BMW Sauber 1:22.983 (66), Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Force India 1:23.015 (100), Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW Sauber 1:23.270 (53), Gary Paffett (ENG) McLaren-Mercedes 1:23.349 (47), Nelsinho Piquet (BRA) Renault 1:23.367 (46), Sebastian Vettel (GER) Toro Rosso 1:23.387 (90), Nico Rosberg (GER) Williams 1:23.453 (12), David Coulthard (SCO) Red Bull 1:23.491 (60), Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull 1:23.547 (63), Sebastien Bourais (FRA) Toro Rosso 1:23.836 (65), Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Williams 1:23.955 (35), Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Honda 1:24.125 (55), Alex Wurtz (AUT) Honda 1:26.975 (26)

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