Germany's Nick Heidfeld returned to Formula One action in testing with the BMW Sauber team on Monday after three months on the sidelines.

The 28-year-old missed the last five races of the 2005 season with Williams, BMW's former partners, when a crash in testing was followed by a cracked shoulder suffered after falling off a bicycle.

"After an almost three-month break I could hardly wait for the first test," he said after the test of this year's Sauber car with BMW's new V8 engine.

"The chassis and engine ran without any problems in the morning," he added.

The German's test was ended early in the afternoon when engineers spotted a problem in the data and told Heidfeld, who last drove for Sauber in 2003, to switch off the engine.

Formula One's rules are changing for next season, with the V10 engines replaced by 2.4 litre V8s.

Briton Gary Paffett, this year's champion with Mercedes in the German DTM touring car series, was quickest at the Circuit de Catalunya for McLaren.

Three cars tested in Barcelona, with Paffett joined by McLaren's Austrian tester Alexander Wurz, on the first day of full testing since the end of the season in October. Other teams joined them yesterday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.