Rosberg shows Mercedes’ pace

The penultimate day of pre-season testing saw Nico Rosberg make best of the more favourable conditions early in the day before rain showers blighted the rest of the morning. Conditions improved however throughout the afternoon allowing additional dry running, but Rosberg’s time remained unbeaten.

Rosberg’s stint of 22 laps first thing this morning at Circuit de Catalunya saw him record a best lap of 1:20.686s around the Spanish Grand Prix venue in his Mercedes, just a fraction off the best time of the week recorded yesterday by Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams Cosworth.

Despite a ‘small technical gremlin’ that brought the MGP W01 to a halt late in the day, Rosberg’s time is a boost for the Brackley-based Mercedes team, as testing so far has been relatively inconclusive in terms of pure performance.

Sebastien Buemi took over the testing of the STR5 today, recording the second fastest time ahead of Jenson Button in the McLaren. The defending champion lost time early in the day with a mechanical problem with his MP4-25, but as conditions improved in the afternoon, was able to pick up the pace.

Rubens Barrichello recovered from an off in the morning in his Williams Cosworth, and was able to put in some hot laps late in the afternoon before the FW32 stopped on circuit. The performance run vaulted the Brazilian veteran fourth fastest ahead of Felipe Massa.

Ferrari opted to sit out the worst of the conditions today, but still managed to put in well over a hundred laps to end the day fourth fastest and impressively able to lap consistently in the 1:22s on longer runs, quicker than expected front-running rivals Red Bull and McLaren.

“Another race simulation successfully completed for the F10,” read the satisfied team’s Twitter page just ahead of the chequered flag. Certainly, Ferrari looks very strong, something noted by former Ferrari champion Michael Schumacher.

Renault shortened their planned test programme due to the weather and this afternoon completed a simulated qualifying run and then some long distance running. Vitaly Petrov duly picked up the pace and was an encouraging fifth in the distinctive yellow and black R30.

Adrian Sutil and the Force India team completed some performance running in the afternoon and was sixth best ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who pretty much sat out the morning running in his Red Bull Renault.

Jarno Trulli completed a race distance in the new T127, his first laps on the intermediate tyres ahead of a small ‘off’ and then the lunch break - then the rest of the stint on dry tyres after lunch. He ended the day ninth ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who had a low key day in the - so far - impressive Sauber Ferrari.

Virgin Racing only completed a limited number of out laps in the morning with Timo Glock behind the wheel while a fuel leak in the afternoon lost the new team further track time.

Glock finally returned to the circuit in the final hour of the day putting in 31 laps to end the day slowest of the 11 runners, 5.6 seconds off the ultimate pace.

In total, there were five red flags courtesy of problems for Button, Barrichello – twice, - Rosberg and Buemi.

Testing continues on Sunday, the final day of testing ahead of the new season.