Circuit de Catalunya 2013 Testing: Roseberg sets pace on final day

Pre-season testing is over – in two weeks time, the first Grand Prix of 2013 will take place in Melbourne and Nico Rosberg signed off with the fastest time recorded this year in Barcelona, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

Fernando Alonso showed strong pace in the Ferrari as well, clocking a 1:20.494 on soft tyres towards the end of the morning, 0.364 secs behind Rosberg.

Jenson Button was third fastest with a 1:21.444 in the morning, before switching runs in the afternoon (ending with a lap count of 122). Nico Hulkenberg was not far off the McLaren on a 1:21.541, but in the afternoon had a ‘race simulation’ cut short due to a technical issue.

After missing Saturday’s test with food poisoning, Kimi Raikkonen returned to the cockpit of the Lotus but spent most of the morning in the garage due to a gearbox problem. He rejoined the session just before lunch, completing most of his running in the afternoon. By the end of the day, he had set a 1:21.658, which was good enough for fifth fastest, but the last two days have been far from ideal ahead of the first race in Melbourne in 11 days time.

Williams drivers Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas were seventh and ninth fastest respectively, as the team concluded their test programme happy with the reliability and performance.

There was some excitement sparked by Red Bull when they sent the triple World Champion out on a set of super softs before lunch, but it was just a constant speed / aero test with no true times being set. The team then spent the majority of their final afternoon running the unmarked tyre compound, as usual keeping their cards close to their chests.

Charles Pic was 10th quickest for Caterham, while rivals Marussia had both their race drivers in action, Jules Bianchi in the morning and Max Chilton in the afternoon. They finished 11th and 13th respectively as both ran through some final race weekend preparation and pit stop scenarios ahead of their F1 debuts in Melbourne.

Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo found himself sandwiched between the two Marussia drivers in the times as he finished 12th in the final day of testing in Barcelona.

Times

	Driver	Car	Best time	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes W04	1:20.130	131
2.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F138	1:20.494	120
3.	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-28	1:21.444	122
4.	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber C32	1:21.541	118
5.	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus E21	1:21.658	50
6.	Paul di Resta	Force India VMJ06	1:21.664	112
7.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:22.415	42
8.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB9	1:22.514	100
9.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams FW34	1:22.524	31
10.	Charles Pic	Caterham CT03	1:23.115	116
11.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia MR02	1:23.167	62
12.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso STR8	1:23.628	90
13.	Max Chilton	Marussia MR02	1:24.103	49

Amalgamated times:

	Driver	Car	Best time	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes W04	1:20.130	251
2.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F138	1:20.494	222
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes W04	1:20.588	230
4.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F138	1:21.266	206
5.	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-28	1:21.444	194
6.	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber C32	1:21.541	197
7.	Adrian Sutil	Force India VMJ06	1:21.627	171
8.	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus E21	1:21.658	50
9.	Paul di Resta	Force India VMJ06	1:21.664	169
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:22.305	151
11.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams FW34	1:22.468	147
12.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB9	1:22.514	165
13.	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber C32	1:22.553	191
14.	Mark Webber	Red Bull RB9	1:22.658	149
15.	Sergio Perez	McLaren MP4-28	1:22.694	201
16.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E21	1:22.716	186
17.	Charles Pic	Caterham CT03	1:23.115	199
18.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia MR02	1:23.167	136
19.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR	1:23.223	173
20.	Davide Valsecchi	Lotus E21	1:23.448	16
21.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso STR	1:23.628	152
22.	Max Chilton	Marussia MR02	1:24.103	202
22.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham CT03	1:24.235	174