Grosjean ends Barcelona test with fastest time of the week

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

The final day of the first test at Barcelona kicked off with good weather yet again, but that didn't stop one driver to beach his car early on in the session, following Sebastian Vettel's example from Saturday.

Indeed, this time it was Nico Rosberg who parked his Mercedes F1 W06 in the gravel trap, just 20 minutes into the session. Without damage to the car, a red flag of around 20 minutes still halted progress as marshals worked to take the car back to the pits, where from 5 minutes later Rosberg immediately returned to the track.

Felipe Nasr in the Sauber also encountered a bit of an issue early on, as he stopped at the pit entry after an installation lap around 9:50. His team members soon rushed to the C34 to get him into the team's box and analyse what was going on.

Over an hour in the session and the McLaren still hasn't left the garage. The plan of the Woking-based team was to split running between Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, but as time is ticking away neither driver will have a lot of time in the car.

At 11h00, local hero Alonso completed the first lap of the day in the patched-up MP4-30.

As the lunch break is approaching, Sainz is the fastest man on track with a time of 1:27.236. The Toro Rosso driver is followed by Vettel( 1:27.238) and Rosberg (1:27.663).

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There is a large crowd at the Spanish track today and they will be pleased to see a Spaniard on top of the time sheets with the lunch break just around the corner. Carlos Sainz Jr. (1:25.605) improved the time of Sebastian Vettel (1:26.312) with 0.7sec and is 0.986sec faster than Nico Hulkenberg (1:26.591) in last years Force India.

At 12h36, the red flag came out again as Alonso stopped on the track at Turn Four with only 19 laps on his tally. As information is leaking in, it appears that it was not a mechanical failure but an accident that stopped Alonso. According to the circuit, the ambulance and medical car are at the scene.

The two-times World Champion was taken to the medical centre before being airlifted to the hospital for a check-up. Alonso was conscious as he arrived at the medical centre on the track and was speaking with the doctors and his physio Fabri Borra.

At 14h15, the afternoon session was kicked off again. It remains unclear if the MP4-30 will be repaired in time to give Jenson Button some track time on this final day of testing this week. The cause of Alonso's crash remains unclear at this point. The German publication Motor und Sport have quoted Sebastian Vettel, who was behind Alonso as the McLaren crashed out: "The speed was slow, maybe 150kph. Then he turned right into the wall. It looked strange."

As the lights turned green Nico Rosberg and Daniil Kvyat were the first drivers to exit the pitlane. Romain Grosjean and Valtteri Bottas appear to be doing a race simulation during the afternoon session.

At 15h26, Nico Hulkenberg brings out the third red flag of the day as his Force India stops on circuit at the exit of the first turn. The VJM07 is smoking from the rear and has lost oil on the track. After the recovery of the car and the clean-up of the track, the session got back underway. The Force India team stated that the car was stopped by a power unit issue which will be investigated back at the factory.

At 16h00, the red flag was being waved once again as Carlos Sainz stopped in his Toro Rosso STR10 in turn 3. While waiting for the green flag to come out again, a spokesperson of McLaren stated that the results of the CT scan of Alonso have reached the team and that the driver is uninjured and fine.

At 16h14, as the session kicked-off again, McLaren stated on Twitter: "That’s the end of our programme here at the first Barcelona test. Thank you for all your messages of support for Fernando."

The session did restart for three minutes but it wasn't running for long as the red flag came out yet again, this time for Williams' Valtteri Bottas. It appears to be a very eventful day at the track today, but not on a positive note.

On the time sheets, Kvyat remains on top with his Red Bull (1:24.941) followed by Sauber's Nasr (1:25.487) and Grosjean (1:25.494) in the Lotus. Hopefully for the teams, the final hour and a half of the test can be completed without interruptions.

With little over an hour left in the session, Romain Grosjean set the fastest time of the day on the supersoft tyres (1:24.067).

With the final 10 minutes of the day on the clock, there is another red flag situation as the Sauber, with Nasr at the wheel, has stopped at Turn Six.

As the session came to a close, Grosjean remained on the top of the time sheets with the best lap time of the four-day test at Barcelona, 1:24.067. The Frenchman was followed by Rosberg (1:24.321) who was 0.254sec slower on the medium tyres and Kvyat (1:24.941) in his Red Bull.

Despite the many red flags of today, four drivers managed to run over 100 laps: Grosjean, Rosberg, Kvyat and Bottas.

With these numbers, the second winter test of 2015 came to a close at Barcelona. In four days however, the teams will come back in action at the Spanish track to prepare for the first race of the season on March 15th in Melbourne.