Webber tops first day of final test at Barcelona

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Mark Webber was the fastest man on track today, setting the fastest time only in the last 10 minutes of the session as the track was still drying up from the rain before noon. Lewis Hamilton was second fastest while Vergne completes the top three.

The morning was mainly filled with rain, forcing the teams to use the wet and intermediate tyres yet again. At was only during the lunch break that the rain started to ease off, but by that time Lewis Hamilton had set the quickest lap around Circuit De Catalunya. Several drivers slipped or spun, but nothing was too serious.

Only Esteban Gutiérrez managed to end up in the tire wall on the outside of the high speed turn 2. He went wide, bumped through the gravel and stopped after a head-on collision into the wall. The car was however repaired for the afternoon session and Esteban was unhurt.

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The afternoon saw a lot more running with teams trying to extract as much running time as possible from a drying track. By the end of the day, it was nearly completely dry, explaining the tumbling times throughout the day and in the end of the session. Mark Webber thereby was fastest on the soft tyres, showing impressive speed from the Red Bull RB9.

Just before that, Felipe Massa caused a red flag by stopping out on track between turns 9 and 10. It may have been a fuel exhaustion simulation from Ferrari, as the stopped came towards the very end of Massa's race simulation, just 15 minutes before the end of the session.