Barcelona Test: Vettel rules in Catalunya

Sebastian Vettel reasserted his authority on the field, today, as he set a scorching pace around the circuit de Catalunya.

The German was back in action for the Red Bull Racing team and set the fastest time of the Catalunya winter testing so far. He completed more than hundred laps today and had no particular problem. Not to mention the fact that he set his fastest time on the first of a three timed-lap run.

He was half a second faster than Toro Rosso’s Sébastien Buemi. The Swiss didn’t have a flawless day though as he stopped at Turn 9 shortly before the lunch break.

Vitaly Petrov was third fastest for Renault but had some problems towards the end of the session and eventually stopped at Turn 6. Lewis Hamilton was up in fourth place, albeit a full second off the pace of Vettel, and had a couple of mechanical issues in the course of the day: first an hydraulic leak and then an exhaust failure.

Felipe Massa rounded off the top five for Ferrari. The Scuderia kicked off its test today and is running a new aerodynamic package including a new exhaust layout.

Birthday boy Pastor Maldonado lost a lot of valuable track time as he had a KERS problem. The team decided to remove the system for the afternoon running.

The Force India team had planned to do a race weekend simulation today, with some running in qualifying spec in the morning and race spec running in the afternoon. Their plan was slightly disturbed by a fuel pressure problem in the morning. Paul di Resta set the sixth fastest time of the day.

Fastest times of the day: