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Mark Webber heads up first day of final Barcelona pre-season test - Formula One's final four day test sees Red Bull post the fastest time

Published by Christine

Grosjean's stop-start kind of day
Grosjean's stop-start kind of dayCredit: Malcolm Griffiths/LAT
Vergne makes the most of conditions to finish third
Vergne makes the most of conditions to finish thirdCredit: Thompson/Getty
Charles Pic kicks up little spray
Charles Pic kicks up little sprayCredit: Caterham F1 / Creative Commons
Gutiérrez chasing Sauber's pot of gold
Gutiérrez chasing Sauber's pot of goldCredit: Sauber Motorsport AG

The final four-day test in Barcelona began as last week's outing left off - with rain! There were showers in the morning that saw the wet tyres in action, and it wasn't until the late stages of the afternoon session that we saw dry tyres and dry times! Mark Webber led the way, with a lap time almost two seconds up on Lewis Hamilton in second place.

Lotus had a difficult day. The rain wasn't part of their plan at all, and messed up the schedule. Romain Grosjean brought out a red flag when he spun the car off into the gravel and beached it, and later the E21 developed a hydraulic problem to boot.

Another day with bad weather in Barcelona is not what I wanted, but there’s nothing you can do about it... You never want to see yourself at the bottom of the timing screens, so hopefully that’s the only time it happens this season. We certainly know there’s more pace in the car than we saw today!

- Romain Grosjean, Lotus

There was a second red flag brought out by Esteban Gutiérrez who crashed into the barriers and gave his mechanics a bit of a headache. Towards the very end of the day, Felipe Massa caused the third and final red flag when his car stopped out on track.

2013 Testing - Day 5, Barcelona
PosDriverTeamTimeLaps
1Mark WebberRed Bull1:22.69390
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:24.348113
3Jean-Éric VergneToro Rosso1:25.01759
4Valtteri BottasWilliams1:26.45885
5Sergio PérezMcLaren1:26.538100
6Esteban GutiérrezSauber1:26.57492
7Paul di RestaForce India1:27.10757
8Felipe MassaFerrari1:27.541112
9Max ChiltonMarussia1:28.16678
10Charles PicCaterham1:28.64483
11Romain GrosjeanLotus1:34.92852

Although Force India have finally confirmed Adrian Sutil for the second seat this year, there may still be driver movements on the cards. Max Chilton has completed the lion's share of testing so far this pre-season, and it looks as though that is down to contract negotiations with Luiz Razia. He was expected to drive today but Chilton surprised all by settling in the cockpit once more.

This is our 1st dry tyre run. Despite the fact that we've done some good wet setup work, we'd like this last hour to be dry - please

Marussia_F1Team Marussia_F1Team

And while the world's media assembles at the back of our garage, the sweet sound of engines reminds us of what's happening at the front...

clubforce clubforce

So it's still wet! Valtteri is ready to go but we're waiting.... Limited sets of tyres and we don't want to risk damaging the car

WilliamsF1Team WilliamsF1Team

Ah, is it a dry line appearing there?! We think it is. Of course it would need to stay dry for it to stay there #JustJinxedIt

MercedesAMGF1 MercedesAMGF1

There is more rain expected tomorrow which may hamper the schedules of those teams trying to pack everything in to these final few days. We should see Vettel, Alonso and Button take to their respective cars, whilst Williams and Lotus will keep their drivers from today. Presumably we will not see hide nor hair of Razia again, and Chilton will keep making the most of the extra mileage.

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