Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull on top of the first day of pre-season testing at Barcelona.
!!!
Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time on the opening day of the first Barcelona test as Red Bull revealed some impressive pace.
Though Vettel's time of 1:23.265 was only 0.353s quicker than Daniel Ricciardo in fourth, the fact that he set his best time on the hard compound tyre means there is plenty more still to come from the RB8. Nico Hulkenberg was second with a 1:23.440 set during the morning session, with Lewis Hamilton third and Daniel Ricciardo fourth, also on times posted before lunch.Fernando Alonso was fifth quickest but fell 25 laps short of the 100-lap target he had set Ferrari at the end of the Jerez test. Michael Schumacher gave the W03 its first public outing and was immediately competitive as he set the sixth fastest time - his 1:24.150 putting him just 0.050s behind Alonso and within 0.9s of Vettel. It wasn't a straightforward day for Mercedes, however, with Schumacher only completing 8 laps in the afternoon.
Romain Grosjean remained tenth despite Lotus abandoning its running for the day after only seven laps. A problem with the chassis was to blame and the original chassis from Jerez will be delivered overnight with the team confident it will be ready to run again on Wednesday. Charles Pic was slowest in the 2011 Marussia, but the team covered 121 laps on its first day of testing this year in a display of reliability and fitness from Pic.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:23.265 79
2. Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:23.440 +0.175 97
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:23.590 +0.325 114
4. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:23.618 +0.353 76
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.100 +0.835 75
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:24.150 +0.885 51
7. Sergio Perez Sauber 1:24.219 +0.954 66
8. Bruno Senna Williams 1:25.711 +2.446 97
9. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:26.035 +2.770 31
10. Roman Grosjean Lotus 1:26.809 +3.544 7
11. Charles Pic Marussia 1:28.026 +4.761 121
