Rosberg ends Barcelona test on top

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

On the final day of winter testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg was the fastest man on track. The German was followed by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Jenson Button. The teams will now return to their factory to continue the final preparations for the opening race of the season on the 17th of March.

Before noon, several teams were again doing aerodynamic tests, with Vettel and Alonso in particular seen with lots of flowviz paint on their cars and running the pitlane straight at a constant speed.

Rosberg on the other hand, although fitted with a pitot tube array, got on with the job immediately and did a lot of laps while others were still getting warmed up after a few installation laps.

As the temperatures rose, most cars set out for qualifying runs, with Rosberg eventually emerging on top, setting a 1:20.130, faster than his teammate Lewis Hamilton did yesterday, and nearly a full 2 seconds faster than what he was able to to during qualifying of last year's Spanish GP, held at this circuit.

Alonso stayed close by on the softs. He was 0.364s slower than the Mercedes and later failed to improve on the super softs.

Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand was all recovered for today, but after only a few corners soon found out there was a problem with the car's gearbox. He remained in the pits until 5 minutes before lunch, completing 7 laps in the 5-hour morning session.

In the afternoon, the teams continued their testing programme with long runs. Nobody was capable to beat the times of Rosberg and Alonso set during the morning session.