In warm and dry conditions here at the Barcelona circuit today, Williams racer Nico Hülkenberg completed his final day of pre season testing with a good run of laps that left him at the top of the leaderboard. The young German’s program included the evaluation of a new sidepod, starts practice and some additional work on the set-up of the FW32. While the team are confident that they are making good progress, they are also fully aware that there’s still plenty to do, and only two days to do it in!

“We’ve had a good test here,” Nico said after ninety nine laps of the Spanish track. “P1 today is nice but means nothing, to be honest. We’re not in Bahrain yet! It’s positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do though. We did a lot of set-up work today and have found some interesting things so I feel ready and confident to go to Bahrain now.”

Second quickest was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard’s program consisting of set-up testing and an assessment of new aerodynamic components, as well as a race simulation, which was completed successfully. At the end of the day, Fernando covered a total of 133 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.20.637, a fraction of a second behind Hülkenberg.

Pedro de la Rosa was third fastest for Sauber after enjoying a very busy second day of testing. The Hinwil based squad ran a simulation of free practice, qualifying and a race distance in one day with excellent track conditions and zero technical problems for the C29. Overall it was a good test day that saw them improve the car’s balance significantly without any technical problems.

“Today was a very good preparation for the season’s start in Bahrain,” Pedro said. “The reliability of the car was perfect and I think the performance was also good, especially in the race simulation. It was a very good exercise and I feel we have now done everything possible to get ready for the first Grand Prix. It was also a big day for me because it has been a while since I last completed a race distance. I feel very well and also really confident now.”

Tonio Liuzzi was next up for Force India, the Italian working through an intensive program that included a full race distance. After completing shorter runs in the morning, where he clocked his fastest time of 1:21.056, the fourth quickest of the day, Tonio started a race simulation after the lunchtime break. Aside from a red flag period shortly after his second stop for tyres, the VJM03 performed reliably throughout the day.

“We can be quite happy about today's program,” he said. “We completed everything without any issues and the car showed very good reliability, even when we did the race simulation. Again it is responding very well and we are improving day by day so everything is looking positive. We still don't know where we are relative to the others, and we will only see in Bahrain, but overall we can be really happy. We now have two more days of testing to try and get as much information as possible.”

Sebastian Vettel was fifth aboard the RB6 for Red Bull Racing as the team undertook its second race weekend simulation. By the end of the session Sebastian had completed 125 laps.

“Today was almost a repeat of the race simulations we did with Mark yesterday and it all went pretty much to plan. We stopped the car again during the race simulation, which was precautionary to check a couple of things, but it was only a minor problem and we quickly got running again. Sebastian finished the race simulation completely before the end of the session; we did a lot of laps and we’re pretty happy with the car,” explained Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering.

A full race day simulation was also on the agenda for Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso, for what was his last day of winter testing, prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race distance was duly completed, including one pit stop and one further unscheduled trip down pit lane, when another car caused a red flag stoppage and the STR 5 ran reliably throughout.

Also, having practiced pit stops at the factory on a daily basis over the winter and also at the three previous test sessions in Valencia and Jerez, this morning the race crew tackled their first “real” pit stops, using the new pit-stop gantry designed to accommodate the lack of race refuelling. After completing the full programme for the day, the team stopped testing prior to the official end of the session. 

“Today was very useful in that it is a good confidence boost to have completed a race simulation on my last day of testing before the start of the season,” said Jaime Alguersuari. “It is still too early to talk about where we are in performance terms, but with a good mileage achieved over these four test sessions, I feel much better prepared than when I made my debut in the middle of last year.”

Michael Schumacher was seventh fastest overall at the wheel of the MGP W01 where he continued the development program which began yesterday. The seven time world champion worked on developing the balance and set-up of the car over longer runs along with further practice of the team's race weekend procedures, including pit stops and practice starts, in preparation for the first race.

"We had a positive day but it was quite stop-start with some changes on the car and then the red flags towards the end of the day,” Schumacher said. “We are working hard and even if the programme doesn't run as smoothly as we would have liked, there is much more to come from the team both here and in Bahrain. We are working very well together and there is a good atmosphere within the team."

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was back on track for McLaren setting the eighth fastest time of the day as he continued development work on refining set-up and evaluating tyres. The morning was spent conducting shorter runs, attempting more experimental set-ups – changes that Lewis found beneficial to the car’s balance.  The different set-up changes caused several lengthy turnarounds in the morning before Lewis could concentrate on a single long-distance run in the afternoon – which was punctuated by several late red-flag periods.

Robert Kubica was next up for Renault, the Polish driver losing track time this afternoon because of a problem with the suspension and he is but I’m sure the team will get on top of the issue so that we can have a good weekend. We have some new aero parts coming for the car on Saturday and Sunday, which will help improve the pace of the car.”

It was a productive day for Lotus Racing as Jarno Trulli took the Lotus Cosworth T127 challenger onto the Barcelona track and completed another 70 laps to finish tenth. Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne gave his end of day round up...

“It was a productive day in terms of set up direction with Jarno. We were able to identify some problems with the set up in the car and establish clear direction to improve it. We still have a long way to go, and a lot of time to come from the car. We had a couple of minor hydraulics issues which stopped the car on track, but nothing major, so all in all it was a productive day and we’re aiming to continue in the same vein tomorrow.”

Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock rounded out the drivers on track after a productive day of running conducting some quality testing of the VR-01 in the dry. The day wasn’t entirely without issue but with just two more days of pre-season testing to go before the team’s debut race, the opportunity to continue debugging the car at the same time as conducting valuable race preparation work in more representative warm and sunny conditions was most welcome. Timo completed 52 laps and set a best time of 1:25.942.

At the end of the day the team conducted its very first pitstop practice session, putting the all-new Virgin Racing pit crew through their paces in preparation for the pressure-cooker of race day in Bahrain.

 “Our recent hydraulic issues, plus yesterday’s crash, have required us to focus the remaining pre-season track time on procedural preparation for Bahrain,” said Nick Wirth, Technical Director for Virgin Racing. “The crash rebuild postponed the start of today’s programme to midday, nevertheless it was quite satisfying to see us complete the day with no reoccurrence of our hydraulic problems. Timo took over the driving duties from Lucas today and we never really got him happy with his throttle pedal, which is something we’re addressing tonight.”