Hamilton on top for McLaren

The final day of the second pre-season test of the season dawned wet once again but conditions continued to improve throughout the morning allowing the ten drivers to switch to slick tyres by lunchtime. Lewis Hamilton crossed the line just ahead of the chequered flag to record the fastest time of the week in his McLaren Mercedes.

Hamilton completed an impressive 115 laps of the Spanish test venue, with a best lap of 1:19.583s, four-tenths up Jaime Alguersuari’s best lap of the week recorded on Friday. However it is worth noting that the times can be taken with a pinch of salt as we do not know what fuel loads were being used for the hot laps but it is encouraging none-the-less for the Woking-based squad.

Adrian Sutil was second fastest in his Mercedes-powered Force India, six-tenths off the pace of Hamilton. The German racer was however one of three drivers to bring out the red flags during the day. He and the team however have declared themselves pretty happy with the initial pace of the new VJM03 challenger.

Rubens Barrichello was third fastest for Williams ahead of Renault driver Robert Kubica. Michael Schumacher was next up for Mercedes, just over a second off the ultimate pace despite stopping on track after the team opted to complete a ‘run dry’ simulation, a common occurrence as the teams explore the limits of the new 2010 challengers. Sebastian Vettel was sixth for Red Bull Renault.

Felipe Massa was seventh fastest and another to grind to a halt with a mechanical issue but despite the Brazilian has a very busy day, completing 160 laps in the new Ferrari F10.

Pedro de la Rosa was eighth for Sauber Ferrari ahead of Lucas di Grassi who finally got some decent mileage in the new Virgin Cosworth. After the front wing frustrations, Virgin opted not to run di Grassi until the circuit has dried sufficiently, but then the Brazilian rookie put in 63 laps in the VR-01 challenger to post the ninth best time ahead of Friday pace setter Alguersuari.

Testing continued at Jerez from next Wednesday in what is the third pre-season test ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on 14th of March.