Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari recorded the fastest time in pre-season testing at Valencia Wednesday as the Italian marque continued to impress in the build-up to the 2010 Formula One season, dpa reported.

   After teammate Felipe Massa recorded the fastest lap times on Monday and Tuesday in his F10, it was Alonso's turn to delight his 36,000 home fans by setting the standard in the morning session with a time of 1 minute 11.599 seconds for the four-kilometre-long Ricardo Tormo circuit.

Alonso completed 127 laps in total on his debut test and was also top in the afternoon session with a day's fastest time of 1:11.470 minutes, more than half a second clear of the field.

Pedro de la Rosa's Sauber was second-quickest, while Michael Schumacher of Mercedes GP was 0.968 seconds off the pace, although the seven-time world champion did have to retire early with a hydraulic problem.

World champion Jenson Button in a McLaren had to be satisfied with a time 1.481 seconds slower than Alonso.

"I think that looking at the data and information now, it would be hard to say we have a winning car," said Schumacher, who is returning to the sport at the age of 41, having retired at the end of the 2006 season.

   "We have to see that we get our act together so we have a competitive season and are challenging for the championship in the end."