The Scuderia Toro Rosso's best lap of 1:19.844 meant he ended the day more than three tenths of a second clear of McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, with Ferrari tester Luca Badoer third quickest overall.
The Italian spent the day focusing on slick tyre work with 2009-levels of downforce.
"We completed our planned programme," said Badoer. "This morning it was important to go deeply into some technical elements to understand what happened last Sunday in Hockenheim.
"We picked up a lot of data, and that will continue over the next few days when we also test some solutions for the forthcoming races."
Most teams had elected to draft in their test drivers for the opening day of the four-day test, which is the last run before the summer break that takes place following the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Williams test driver Niko Hulkenberg - who caused the only red flag of the day - was fourth quickest, ahead of Red Bull Racing's Sebastien Buemi and Romain Grosjean in the Renault.
Jarno Trulli was the second driver to concentrate on slick tyre work, with his Toyota configured to 2009 regulations.
"We have made a good start and collected some interesting data for the development of next year's car," said Trulli. "Tomorrow I will begin work to prepare for Hungary."
The main talking point of the day, though, was the incident at BMW Sauber where a mechanic suffered an electric shock when he touched the car fitted with their Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS).
Klien did not complete any timed laps and, with the team unsure about the cause of the accident, BMW Sauber abandoned work on KERS for now.
Today's times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:19.844 94 2. Paffett McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:20.179 80 3. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:20.697 69 4. Hulkenberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.953 58 5. Buemi Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.997 110 6. Grosjean Renault (B) 1:21.223 71 7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:21.459 96 8. Wurz Honda (B) 1:21.596 84 9. Klien BMW-Sauber (B) no time 3 All Timing Unofficial
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