Barcelona F1 test: Mark Webber tops first day for Red Bull

The Australian's 1m22.693s lap time was set on soft-compound Pirelli tyres with just seven minutes of running remaining and put him 1.655s clear of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

After the late-morning rain left drivers with a wet track to tackle, rain tyres were the weapons of choice during the early afternoon running, with Webber recording a series of 1m44s laps.

Track conditions soon improved enough for intermediates, with Paul di Resta the first man to try the green-stickered Pirellis in his Force India.

Webber having lowered the pace to the 1m38s bracket, it was Felipe Massa who was the first to gamble on a switch to slicks, the Ferrari driver using medium-compound rubber to gradually bring the times down into the 1m30s.

By that stage conditions were dry enough to allow a range of tyre strategies to be deployed, with medium, soft and supersoft rubber all being used at various points during the afternoon.

A late red flag, caused when Massa's Ferrari stopped at the exit of Turn 9, led to a flurry of fast times during the 12 minutes that remained.

Webber and Hamilton initially exchanged the top spot before the Red Bull driver twice went quicker still to end the day on top.

Hamilton, who suffered a quick spin at Turn 1 while on pushing hard on slicks, was followed by Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso, the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and McLaren's Sergio Perez.

Hamilton completed more laps than anybody else. His total of 113 was one more than Massa. Perez was the only other driver to get into triple figures.

TODAY'S TIMES

Pos  Driver             Team          Time         Gap     Laps    Tyre
 1.  Mark Webber        Red Bull      1m22.693s             90     Soft
 2.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1m24.348s  + 1.655s   113    Medium
 3.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso    1m25.017s  + 2.324s   59     Medium
 4.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1m26.458s  + 3.765s   85     Soft
 5.  Sergio Perez       McLaren       1m26.538s  + 3.845s   100    Hard
 6.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber        1m26.574s  + 3.881s   92     Soft
 7.  Paul di Resta      Force India   1m27.107s  + 4.414s   57     Medium
 8.  Felipe Massa       Ferrari       1m27.541s  + 4.848s   112    Medium
 9.  Max Chilton        Marussia      1m28.166s  + 5.473s   78     Medium
10.  Charles Pic        Caterham      1m28.644s  + 5.951s   83     Medium
11.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1m34.928s  + 12.235s  52     Medium

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