Alonso's on top as Hamilton struggles.

FERNANDO ALONSO blew away his test rivals, notably Lewis Hamilton, on a day when the latest session was hampered by gusting winds.

The Formula One teams have had to cope with sandstorms and heavy rains during the past few weeks in the build-up to the new season as the elements have seriously hampered their programmes.

On the fourth day of five at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain yesterday, it was strong gales that caused the problems on this occasion.

Former double world champion Alonso, though, emerged on top with a time of one minute 19.945 seconds - the third best overall this week - set on the 13th of his 130 laps overall.

The Spaniard's time was 1.357secs quicker than Hamilton, who could only finish seventh of eight overall on his return to the track.

Alonso said: "I'm very happy with the result from this test as we had two trouble-free days, a very consistent car and the work we have done has been very useful."

Kimi Raikkonen was second quickest in his Ferrari, but just over three tenths of a second down, followed by Nick Heidfeld for BMW Sauber and Toyota's Jarno Trulli, both 0.5secs off the pace.

Hamilton managed a day low of 70 laps.

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Lewis Hamilton yesterday