Another day, another Red Bull fastest lap

Red Bull maintained their dominance in pre-season testing in Barcelona on Wednesday with Sebastien Vettel clocking the fastest lap

After Mark Webber posted a 1:22.544 to claim the best time on Tuesday, Vettel kept the defending Champions atop the timesheets with a 1:21.865 - the quickest time in pre-season testing so far.

The 2010 World Champ posted his time inside the first two hours of testing under cloudy skies at the Circuit de Catalunya and no one was able to knock him off his perch for the rest of the session and he spent the bulk of the afternoon doing long runs.

Red Bull's sister car, Toro Rosso, was second fastest with Sebastien Buemi 0.531 off Vettel's pace. It was a big improvement for Buemi after he found himself more than three seconds off the pace on Tuesday after mechanical problems.

Vitaly Petrov, who was second on day one, had another encouraging display with a 1:22.670.

The big story of the day though was McLaren's problems. Although Lewis Hamilton managed to post a 1:22.888 late in the day, his morning was session was blighted with problems. Most of the other drivers completed more than 100 laps, but Hamilton could only manage 57 laps due to a hydraulics leak and an exhaust failure.

Felipe Massa, whose Ferrari sported a new aerodynamic package that included a new layout of the exhausts, completed the top five with a 1:23.324. He was followed by Force India's Paul di Resta and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi who were both more than two seconds off Vettel's pace.

Mercedes also tested a new exhaust system and Nico Rosberg was eighth with a 1:25.807. Birthday boy Pastor Maldonado could only manage 29 laps on Wednesday following a problem with his KERS early in the session.

Times
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:21.865 112 laps
02. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1:22.396 + 0.531 120 laps
03. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:22.670 + 0.805 116 laps
04. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:22.888 + 1.023 57 laps
05. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:23.324 + 1.459 101 laps
06. Paul di Resta Force India 1:24.334 + 2.469 118 laps
07. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:24.436 2.571 107 laps
08. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.807 + 3.942 100 laps
09. Jarno Trulli Lotus 1:26.090 + 4.225 98 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:26.989 + 5.124 29 laps
11. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin 1:28.982 + 7.117 64 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Barcelona: Massa reigns supreme

Felipe Massa concluded the Barcelona test by setting the fastest lap time seen at the Circuit de Catalunya over the four days

The Brazilian, who put aside Sunday's slips and slides to amass 121 laps, clocked a 1:22.625, half a second up on the previous best set by Nico Rosberg on Sunday. Massa's time was posted over a two-lap qualifying-style run.

He wasn't the only driver to move to the front with a short burst as Mark Webber claimed second place with the exact same run. The Aussie, though, was 0.817s slower on his flying lap than his Ferrari rival.

Sebastien Buemi continued Toro Rosso's fine form in the STR6 as he finished the day in third place, less than a second behind Massa's Ferrari.

The Swiss driver also had the joys of another problem-free day, putting in 90 laps as the third of four pre-season tests reached its conclusion.

"Today went well and I am happy with what we achieved. We got through the entire programme we had planned and did enough laps to improve our understanding of the various types of Pirelli tyre," said Buemi.

"Along with the two other drivers, we gathered a lot of data over the past four days here in Barcelona and it will be important to analyse everything very carefully to find the right way to move forward in terms of reliability and performance, when we tackle the final pre-season test session."

Nick Heidfeld, despite not having Renault's KERS unit on board, was fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The latter covered in 107 laps as McLaren put some much-needed mileage on their MP4-26.

Sixth place went to Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado, although it was by not means an easy day for the Venezuelan. He again found himself spending time in the team's garage when he came to a halt out on track in the afternoon, bringing out the red flags.

Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez were next in line ahead of Jerome D'Ambrosio, Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli - the latter three all responsible for red flags.

Trulli caused the day's first stoppage when he crashed at Turn Nine. It also resulted in Team Lotus stopping their test as the team did not have all the parts needed to rebuild the car.

Trulli has already been cleared of all blame with tech boss Mike Gascoyne saying the crash was caused by a malfunction of the T128.

D'Ambrosio was responsible for the second red, stopping out on track in the morning while Schumacher caused the day's final stoppage in the last half-an-hour of testing.

It was a sharp and sudden fall back down to earth for the Mercedes GP team, who had set the pace on Sunday with Rosberg and had completed three days without any problems.

Times
01. Massa Ferrari 1:22.625 121 laps
02. Webber Red Bull 1:23.442 + 0.817 69 laps
03. Buemi Toro Rosso 1:23.550 + 0.925 90 laps
04. Heidfeld Lotus Renault 1:23.657 + 1.032 95 laps
05. Hamilton McLaren 1:24.003 + 1.378 107 laps
06. Maldonado Williams 1:24.057 + 1.432 121 laps
07. Sutil Force India 1:24.177 + 1.552 64 laps
08. Perez Sauber 1:24.515 + 1.890 74 laps
09. D'Ambrosio Virgin 1:26.501 + 3.876 50 laps
10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:27.079 + 4.454 114 laps
11. Trulli Team Lotus 1:29.992 + 7.367 18 laps

Source: Planet-F1