Alonso ups the pace in Barcelona

Mark Webber made headlines yesterday as he topped the timesheets in Barcelona by a significant margin. Today, Fernando Alonso proved there is still some way to go in terms of performance as he banged in a number of laps quicker than Webber’s Thursday best, stopping the clock in 1:20.637s, a gain of nine-tenths of a second.

By their own admission, Ferrari has today turned its attention to performance running at the Spanish Grand Prix circuit, the F10 featuring a number of ‘new aerodynamic solutions’ including a now prevalent shark fin engine cover.

Pedro de la Rosa is second fastest ahead of the lunch break, three-tenths shy of Alonso’s best in the impressive Sauber Ferrari while Tonio Liuzzi is third in his Force India Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel has pretty much matched the time set by Webber yesterday in the Red Bull Renault and is currently fourth fastest ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso. Michael Schumacher is next up for Mercedes ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Williams completed a number of long runs with the FW32 which features a number of aerodynamic tweaks to be used in the first race of the season with Nico Hulkenberg charged with driving duties.

Hulkenberg was eighth ahead of Robert Kubica. The Renault programme is varied today with Kubica combining shorter runs along with longer stints at the wheel of the distinctive R30.

Virgin Racing has had a busy time rebuilding the VR-01 following di Grassi’s accident yesterday, caused the team say by ‘experimental control settings’. With Timo Glock handling the driving duties, the team made a late start as they finished the required repairs but despite completing just 18 laps, are already quicker than main rival Lotus.

A seating problem delayed Jarno Trulli at Lotus this morning but the Italian veteran was soon back on track in the T127, admitting that setup was not to his liking as he lapped six seconds off the ultimate pace.

Pit stop work was prevalent up and down the pitlane today as the teams gear up for the Bahrain Grand Prix in just over two weeks time.