Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg set the fastest lap on the penultimate day of pre-season testing. The German clocked a 1:20.686 from 128 laps – the most laps set by any driver today. He said:

“We had a good day today and made some significant progress in terms of set-up which was nice to see. We hadn’t got the most out of the car in terms of performance over the last couple of days, but we made a step in the right direction today. We went through some big changes this morning step by step and found some good improvements. The longer runs this afternoon were interesting. We learnt a lot as there were other cars running similar programmes at the same time so we were able to do some comparisons. There is still plenty of room to improve but overall we’re looking in pretty good shape.”

Nico Rosberg

Toro Rosso’s Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi was second fastest, with a 1:21.413 from 106 laps. The Faenza-based team’s plans were slightly altered by the light drizzle which fell at the Circuit de Catalunya, as the team’s Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies explained:

“Today’s programme was supposed to be a repeat of yesterday’s – pit stop practice in the morning, followed by a race simulation in the afternoon – with Sébastien taking over from Jaime. However, the morning rain slightly altered the plans, although we were able to complete the race simulation, as there were only two periods of light drizzle in the afternoon.”

Laurent Mekies

Jenson Button was third in the McLaren, who’s running was also affected by the weather, which compromised running and limited the team’s learning of a number of new components. As a result, the morning was spent conducting a number of shorter installation runs to establish set-up. As the track dried over the lunch hour, Jenson was able to complete a race simulation in the afternoon – a run that was only mildly disrupted by late red flags. This also provided the opportunity for the race team to undertake a series of live pitstops, all of which went without problem.

4th was Rubens Barrichello finishing ahead of Felipe Massa, who insists Ferrari are working in the right direction:

“We managed to drive many miles, which is always positive. We finished another race simulation without any problems, which helped us to better understand the tyre behaviour with different fuel loads and under different track conditions. I’m satisfied with today. We’re working in the right direction for the start of the Championship.”

Felipe Massa

6th was Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil was 7th and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel 9th. Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering at Red Bull, commented on the team’s day:

“We were late out this morning as we had a few technical issues following the overnight rebuild, which carried over into the planned programme for today. Once we were running in the afternoon we got three or four positive tests completed looking at set-up directions for Bahrain, which gave us some clear results – so we ended the session in much better shape.”

Ian Morgan

Jarno Trulli was 9th in the Lotus, and said he expects the team’s car to be around 4 seconds off the pace. Despite this, Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer at Lotus, put a more positive slant on today’s test, saying:

“Another productive day with Jarno; over a hundred laps completed with no real mechanical issues and Jarno was able to complete the full race distance in the mix of wet and dry weather.

“We successfully completed our whole programme with the changeable conditions and have had two very useful days with Jarno in the car, with a very clear set up direction from him. Now we’re looking forward to further refining the balance of the car with Heikki tomorrow.”

Mike Gascoyne

Kamui Kobayashi finished 10th. Kobayashi completed a race simulation, which was run under changing weather conditions with light rain on and off. After the lunch break Kobayashi continued to do some set-up work.

Last was Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock, who set a 1:26.305 after completing just 31 laps, due to minor but frustrating problems which cost the team valuable running time.

Results

1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m 20.686s 128 laps
2. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 21.413s 106 laps
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m 21.450s 105 laps
4. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m 21.975s 101 laps
5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m 22.344s 115 laps
6. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m 22.523s 68 laps
7. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m 22.606s 61 laps
8. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m 23.123s 51 laps
9. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1m 25.059s 102 laps
10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m 26.216s 105 laps
11. Timo Glock  Virgin-Cosworth 1m 26.305s 31 laps

Images below…

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