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Barcelona F1 test: Rosberg tops Mercedes' first day of 2016

Nico Rosberg put a Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the first time in 2016 Formula 1 pre-season testing while his team-mate Lewis Hamilton completed a full race simulation

On the opening day of Barcelona's second test, Mercedes ran the soft tyres for the first time this year with Rosberg clocking a 1m23.022s just before lunch, finishing 0.207 seconds clear of Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, whose time was set on the ultra-softs.

It was an impressive performance from Mercedes, which focused on low-fuel and qualifying speed in the morning before changing tack in the afternoon when Hamilton took over the car.

The reigning world champion completed a short stint on the softs before completing three stints on the mediums as part of a 66-lap run.

Fernando Alonso suffered what McLaren described as a "small telemetry" glitch before lunch, but the team got him back out midway through the afternoon.

The two-time world champion clocked the third quickest time, 1.713s off the pace, and put 93 laps on the board.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had spent much of the day in second before he stopped out on track just after lunch.

He returned to the track late in the afternoon and he ended the day with 71 laps on the board, 100 fewer than Rosberg and Hamilton managed between them.

Red Bull suffered a long delay after a brake casing problem caused a small fire at the back of the RB12, with Daniil Kvyat rejoining in the afternoon to clock the fifth fastest time.

Hamilton was sixth, ahead of Max Verstappen and Nico Hulkenberg, both of whom managed more than 100 laps apiece.

The 2016-spec Sauber proved to be reliable straight out of the box as Felipe Nasr clocked 103 laps for the ninth quickest time.

Renault's Kevin Magnussen was 10th, but caused a red flag with a few minutes to go, when he stopped out on track having completed 119 laps.

Haas saw its running end early with a fuel system problem, with Esteban Gutierrez managing just 23 laps.

Manor's Rio Haryanto had a troublesome day with the Indonesian missing most of the morning session as his team worked to fix a small oil leak.

He recovered to log 45 laps and the 12th fastest time, 4.603s off the pace.

TUESDAY TIMES:

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m23.022s - 82
2 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m23.229s 0.207s 123
3 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m24.735s 1.713s 93
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m24.836s 1.814s 72
5 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull/Renault 1m25.049s 2.027s 69
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m25.051s 2.029s 90
7 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m25.176s 2.154s 144
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1m25.336s 2.314s 121
9 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1m25.493s 2.471s 103
10 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m25.760s 2.738s 119
11 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m26.661s 3.639s 23
12 Rio Haryanto Manor/Mercedes 1m27.625s 4.603s 45

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