Jerez Day One: A tale of two Nicos

Nico Rosberg may officially be the winner of the opening day of testing at Jerez but it was Nico Hulkenberg who won the bigger - and longer - battle.

Wednesday marked the first of four days that the Formula One teams will be testing this week and with heavy cloud cover overhead it was only a matter of time before the rain came down.

But before it did, Rosberg put in 11 laps during which he clocked a 1:20.927, putting him at the top of the leaderboard.

The Mercedes GP driver's time proved to be unbeatable for the remaining seven hours of play as the constant rain meant his rivals were unable to get the grip or speed needed to challenge him.

But while Rosberg may be the official winner of Day One, one could argue that Hulkenberg was just as big a winner.

The Williams driver set the fastest lap time on a wet track, clocking a 1:28.606, four-tenths up on Fernando Alonso's best.

Jenson Button was third quickest in the wet, some 1.5s off Hulkenberg's pace. Button's day began with some concerns about his MP4-25, which was fitted with a special device used to measures aerodynamic flow structures.

This prompted some speculation that McLaren were having aero problems, a claim denied by the team, who also ran Button's MP4-25 without the device attached.

Mark Webber, whose newly-launched RB6 suffered an oil leak that kept him off the track for over four hours, was fourth quickest in the wet, although only ninth in the dry. The Aussie also brought out the day's first red flag when his car stopped out on track.

He finished, at the wet timesheets at least, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Rosberg. Rosberg was responsible for the only other red flag, bringing the session to an end with eight minutes left on the clock. Initial reports claim it was a mechanical failure that caused Rosberg to stop out on track.

Tonio Liuzzi, testing Force India's VJM01 for the first time, finished in seventh place ahead of Sebastian Buemi, Vitaly Petrov and Timo Glock.

Glock was in action for Virgin Racing today, putting their new challenger through its paces up against rivals for the very first time. However, he joined the action late in the day, only hitting the track after lunch, which meant the German wasn't able to put in a single lap on a dry track.

Unofficial Wet Times

1. Hulkenberg Williams 1:28.606
2. Alonso Ferrari 1:28.7
3. Button McLaren 1:30
4. Webber Red Bull 1:30
5. Kobayashi Sauber 1:31
6. Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:32
7. Liuzzi Force India 1:32
8. Buemi Toro Rosso 1:33
9. Petrov Renault 1:34
10. Glock Virgin Racing 1:38

Unofficial Dry Times

1. N. Rosberg Mercedes GP W01 1:20.927 57 laps
2. S. Buemi Toro Rosso STR5 1:21.031 +0.104 84 laps
3. N. Hülkenberg Williams FW32 1:22.243 +1.316 118 laps
4. F. Alonso Ferrari F10 1:22.895 +1.968 88 laps
5. K. Kobayashi Sauber C29 1:23.287 +2.360 55 laps
6. J. Button McLaren MP4-25 1:24.947 +4.020 68 laps
7. V. Liuzzi Force India VJM-03 1:24.968 +4.041 71 laps
8. V. Petrov Renault R30 1:25.440 +4.513 27 laps
9. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB6 1:26.502 +5.575 50 laps
10. T. Glock Virgin Racing VR-01 1:38.734 +17.807 5 laps

Source: Planet-F1.com