Vettel goes fastest

Red Bull set the pace in Friday afternoon practice session with Sebastian Vettel setting the fastest lap time ahead of his teammate Mark Webber.

The session was held under cloudy skies but remained dry, allowing the teams and drivers to diligently resume their preparations for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Robert Kubica set the early pace but had to quickly hand the lead over to Michael Schumacher. Driving an upgraded MGP W01 the German looks more impressive this weekend than on the four previous races.

He was soon relegated to third by Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, shortly before the stoppage of the session. It was red-flagged following a heavy off from Nico Hulkenberg. The German rookie escaped unhurt but damaged the front end of his Williams.

The marshalls then had to move the stricken car behind the barrier, clean the track and put the tyre barrier in place. The session resumed just 14 minutes later with a number of drivers, led by Schumacher, rushing out of the pits.

Webber massively improved before the halfway point, lapping the Catalunya circuit in 1’20’’175. At that point, the Red Bull driver was heading the rest of the field by more than a second!

With thirty minutes remaining, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso also dipped under the 1’21 barrier to slightly close the gap to the Australian. Sebastian Vettel was even more impressive as he moved up from P10 to P1 with a fastest 1’19’’965 thanks to the soft tyre.

The Red Bull Racing driver was unchallenged and ended the session on top, with Webber strongly holding onto 2nd place. Schumacher retained third spot ahead of Alonso. Having set the pace in this morning practice, Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest but a full second slower than Vettel.

Renault’s Robert Kubica was sixth fastest while Rosberg, Massa, Button and Sutil rounded off the top ten.

Having been forced to sit out the first practice session because of a gearbox problem, Pedro de la Rosa tried to make up for the time lost and ended the day in 11th position.

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari stopped on the circuit with just four minutes remaining.