Brazilian Nelson Piquet junior, teenage son of the former world champion, had his first drive in a Formula One car with the Williams team in Spain on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old joined regular driver Ralf Schumacher and Spanish reserve Marc Gene at the southern Jerez track at the start of three days of testing that will also see Nico Rosberg [ Images ], son of Finland's former champion Keke, in action on Wednesday.

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Watched by his father, who won three titles including one for Williams in 1987, Nelsinho completed 65 laps with a best time exactly three seconds slower than Ralf.

The Brazilian, who will test again on Thursday, spent time getting used to the car but the team said he was held up by a gearbox problem that delayed the morning programme by an hour and a half.

"Nelson, however, did a competent job for his first outing," said Sam Michael, Williams chief operations engineer.

"Today was not bad at all. I thought it would be more difficult than it was," the Autosport website quoted the Formula Three driver as saying.

"I actually found it easier than the F3000 car I drove here recently. It's nice not having to take your hands off the steering wheel."