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Alonso fastest as Pirelli test ends

Ferrari completed its domination of the final Formula 1 running of the season, with Fernando Alonso matching team-mate Felipe Massa by topping the times in the Abu Dhabi tyre test

Over the course of the two-day test, the 12 F1 teams have had their first opportunity to try Pirelli's development rubber for the 2011 season. As well as being fastest, Alonso completed over 100 laps today, almost two full race distances.

Michael Schumacher, who has struggled with front-end grip throughout the 2010 season, was initially placed second-fastest, putting in a lap just 0.156s off Alonso with 15 minutes of the day remaining, but this was later disallowed due to the German cutting a chicane, which dropped him to seventh.

Ths put him ahead of Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, who had a repeat of yesterday's tyre failure and had to stop on track shortly before midday, therefore moved up to second. Friday's incident was traced to a cut tyre, and Pirelli has yet to confirm to cause of this puncture despite suspicions that it was the same.

Williams's Rubens Barrichello and Renault driver Robert Kubica were third and fourth fastest for Renault ahead of McLaren pairing Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey. DTM title hopeful Paffett was the faster of the two drivers after running in the morning, with his young team-mate only one tenth of a second slower.

Force India's Paul di Resta was eighth fastest after causing a brief red flag earlier in the day when a sensor fault shut the car down, outpacing Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.

Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi was 10th fastest ahead of two drivers who only ran in the afternoon - Force India's Tonio Liuzzi and Sauber newcomer Sergio Perez. It was only Perez's second day in an F1 car and he lapped just under seven tenths off his team-mate.

Lotus was best of the new teams, with Jarno Trulli a quarter of a second ahead of HRT's Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan driver, on his fourth day of F1 running in five days, caused a red flag in the afternoon when he spun and stopped on track.

German Timo Glock completed two days of running for Virgin, ending up slowest, just 15 thousandths of a second behind Maldonado.


Pos  Driver              Team         Time       Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari      1m40.529s  105
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull     1m40.825s  66
 3.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams     1m41.294s  101
 4.  Robert Kubica       Renault      1m41.614s  91
 5.  Gary Paffett        McLaren      1m41.622s  46
 6.  Oliver Turvey       McLaren      1m41.740s  30
 7.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes     1m41.757s  74
 8.  Paul di Resta       Force India  1m41.869s  35
 9.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber       1m42.110s  43
 9.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso   1m42.145s  98
10.  Tonio Liuzzi        Force India  1m42.416s  47
11.  Sergio Perez        Sauber       1m42.777s  46
12.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus        1m44.521s  83
13.  Pastor Maldonado    Hispania     1m44.768s  65
14.  Timo Glock          Virgin       1m44.783s  83

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