Barcelona I, day 4: Kobayashi quickest on last day

As the fourth and final day of the first winter test in Barcelona came to a close this afternoon, it would be Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber C31 who would remain on top of the time sheets.

Kobayashi’s fastest lap of 1:22.312 came in the final hour of this morning’s session on a set of the super soft Pirelli’s. There were no real risks of his fastest lap coming under threat, as teams once again opted to run longer race simulation stints over the course of the afternoon. Kamui would also lay claim to the highest number of laps recorded by any team today, finishing with an enormous total of 145 timed laps, more than double the length of two full Grand Prix races at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Pastor Maldonado in his Williams FW34 would be the man to get closest to Kobayashi all day, managing to achieve a fastest lap of 1:22.561, just 0.249 back on the pace setter. Maldonado also posted his second consecutive test day with more than 100 laps to his name, finishing on 134 today.

Paul di Resta would be the only time sheet change in the afternoon session. A late change to the super soft compound tyres would allow di Resta to post a flying lap of 1:23.119, promoting the Force India driver to third, and knocking World Champion Jenson Button in the McLaren into fourth on the time sheets. Both di Resta and Button also cleared the century lap mark today, with di Resta managing 101, whilst Button clocked 115 onto the MP4-27. Button would also be the last of the nine runners today who would get to within a second of Kobayashi’s pace setting time.

Felipe Massa had a somewhat stronger afternoon in the Ferrari F2012, and with the team spending nearly an hour of the afternoon session changing the setup of the car again, would be yet another driver to break the 100 lap mark. Massa was running longer stints, between 12 and 14 laps at a time over the afternoon, and would finish the day in fifth position, totalling 103 laps. This is the first time the Italian team has broken the century mark this test session.

Mark Webber’s Red Bull and the sister team Toro Rosso STR 7 would also remain unchanged on the time sheet, with neither driver passing the 100 lap mark, and only 0.018 seconds separating the RB8 of Webber in sixth and Jean Eric Vergne in seventh.

After spending the morning focusing on race simulation, Mercedes AMG F1 would focus their afternoon’s efforts on shorter runs and general data collection. Nico Rosberg would therefore end the day with a best effort of 1:23.843, a full one and a half seconds off the pace. However, the constant running of the W03 meant that Rosberg would accumulate 139 laps over the course of the day, the second highest number of any of the other runners, and with no signs of any mechanical or hydraulics issues that plagues the car earlier this week.

Heikki Kovalainen would once again bring up the rear of all 9 runners today. An electrical fault in the engine this morning kept the car off track until early afternoon. However, once the car was put back together, Kovalainen would manage to push the car up to 70 laps for the day, and a final time of 1:26.968, over four and a half seconds behind first position.

Marussia F1, who this morning stated a rear suspension problem would need rectifying before they could run, would be unable to fix their car, and stated early in the afternoon that they would pull out of the day’s test. This meant that Charles Pic would not get some needed time in a Formula 1 car, but also that the teams’ 2011 challenger, the MVR-02, would not get a final run. The team will unveil its 2012 challenger, the MR-01, at the third and final winter test next week.

Day 4 final times and total lap numbers can be seen below. The first Winter Test at Barcelona is now complete. Formula 1 will return for the third and final winter test at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, which will take part in several segments.

Lotus F1, under the rules of the test agreement, will have a private test day, the date of which is yet to be announced, due to the fact that the team withdrew early from the first test in Barcelona. Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have opted to run a slightly different schedule to the other teams, and will run for 4 days from March 2nd to March 5th 2012. All other teams will test on the originally scheduled days of March 1st to March 4th 2012.

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