Webber ups the pace with Red Bull

After days of wet conditions, the 11 teams present this week in Spain were able to enjoy some dry running with most opting to complete relatively long runs to evaluate both the 2010 challengers and the slick compounds on offer from Bridgestone.

Red Bull Renault lost a little time in the middle of the day when the RB6 ground to a halt, but were soon back out with Mark Webber behind the wheel. Webber completed 115 laps with a best time of 1:19.299s, beating Lewis Hamilton’s best pre-season time at this circuit (1:19.583s) recorded last Friday.

With Red Bull flying high, Fernando Alonso started his two-day stint with Ferrari today, completing long runs to evaluate the tyres on varying fuel loads. With the president of sponsor Santander on hand to monitor progress, Alonso managed 132 laps in the F10 challenger, recording the second fastest time of the day, eight-tenths shy of Webber. Jenson Button was third, a second off the ultimate pace in his McLaren Mercedes.

Like Ferrari, Williams Cosworth completed some pit stop practice in between longer runs with Nico Hulkenberg putting in an impressive 138 laps before the FW32 stopped right at the end of the session. Hulkenberg was fourth fastest, just over two seconds shy of Webber’s best and five thousandths ahead of Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes GP W01.

Robert Kubica was fifth for Renault ahead of Adrian Sutil in the Force India Mercedes, both enjoying a relatively trouble-free day. However, over at Sauber Ferrari, it was something of a character building day. Having been frustrated by the wet conditions all week, the team completed just six timed laps in the morning before stopping on track with a fuel pressure problem.

Kamui Kobayashi and the new C29 were not seen until late in the afternoon with the Swiss-based team admitting that the problem - while minor - was very time consuming to rectify. The final hour of running saw Kobayashi pick up the pace and complete an additional 22 laps to end the day eighth fastest.

Toro Rosso Ferrari working on braking systems today as well as aero evaluation today with Jaime Alguersuari driving. The young Spaniard ended the day ninth ahead of Formula One’s two new entrants.

Lucas di Grassi recovered from an early off in the new Virgin Cosworth, putting in 33 laps before the VR-01 failed on track. The Brazilian was only able to complete one more timed lap later in the day in what is proving to be a trying week for the new outfit.

After missing most of the morning running due to a clutch problem, Lotus were back on track this afternoon with Heikki Kovalainen behind the wheel, completing longer runs and comparing the tyre compounds on offer. However a cracked exhaust curtailed his run prematurely and the team ended the session slowest of the 11 runners 4.2s behind Webber.

Testing continues at Jerez on Saturday.