Barcelona Test: Webber dominates for Red Bull

Eight F1 teams were back on track today as the final pre-season test got underway on the Circuit de Catalunya.

It was a busy day for all concerned, with just three red flags interrupting the action.

The first two occurred in the morning and were caused by Sébastien Buemi – who stopped his Toro Rosso near the pit exit – and Davide Valsecchi (Lotus) – who went off between Turns 11 and 12 shortly before the lunch break. The last one occurred a few minutes to the end of the session, when Luiz Razia stopped his Lotus on track.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber set the pace for most of the day but it is Sergio Perez who was on top of the timesheet at the end of the session. But the Mexican’s fastest time was deleted afterwards as it appeared that he had cut the chicane.

Webber started the day with some qualifying-spec runs before concentrating on race pace in the afternoon. He set his fastest time in the morning and was three tenths of a second quicker than Jenson Button. This was a rather encouraging performance for the McLaren driver whose MP4-26 was quite far off the pace in the last test.

Vitaly Petrov was third fastest for Renault. The Enstone-based team ran a new floor and new rear wing today. Nick Heidfeld was scheduled to drive today and was at the wheel this morning but didn’t feel well and decided to skip this afternoon’s session. He was subsequently replaced by his teammate.

Fastest times of the day: