Barcelona F1 test: Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari end winter on top
Sebastian Vettel concluded Formula 1 pre-season testing as he started it, by posting the quickest time for Ferrari
Of his four days overall in the SF16-H, Vettel topped the Barcelona timesheet on three occasions.
With team-mate Kimi Raikkonen leading the way on two of his four outings, it means Ferrari was fastest on five of the eight days overall.
On the Friday of the second test, Vettel's lap of 1m22.852s proved to be the best seen on the super-soft compound across both weeks.
That time was set in the morning run, with the four-time champion embarking on a full race simulation in the afternoon on his way to 142 laps overall, the highest total of the day.
Vettel finished 0.282 seconds clear of Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr, whose lap of 1m23.134s was posted before lunch on Pirelli's new-for-2016 ultra-soft compound.
Felipe Massa leaped from 10th in the times in the morning to third come the end courtesy of a super-soft tyre run that put him 0.792s behind Vettel.
Like Vettel and Sainz, the best lap from Force India's Sergio Perez was also done in the morning, with the Mexican using super-softs to finish 0.889s down on Vettel.
On his final test outing in the morning, Lewis Hamilton was denied the "knife-edge" run he had hoped for as Mercedes kept the true potential of its W07 Hybrid under wraps.
Come the end of his 638th lap in the car over the two weeks, Hamilton broke down with a transmission problem that delayed team-mate Nico Rosberg's running in the afternoon.
Hamilton finished fifth quickest, with Rosberg down in 13th, and with neither driver using any of the soft compounds, as was predominantly the case across the eight days.
Rosberg still managed 70 laps on Friday, but in appearing to concentrate on high-fuel runs the German finished 4.599s behind compatriot Vettel.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was sixth quickest on a set of softs, followed by the McLaren of Jenson Button who found himself still almost two seconds off the pace, despite his best lap being on ultra-softs.
Jolyon Palmer suffered yet another issue on his final day in the car.
A hydraulic problem limited his Renault to just 31 laps in the morning, the Briton added another 59 in the afternoon to finish eighth best on a super-soft lap.
Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was ninth courtesy of a soft tyre outing, 2.1s behind Vettel, and just ahead of Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez.
Grosjean completed 66 laps in the morning after being plagued by brake-by-wire woes on Thursday before handing over the car to Gutierrez for the afternoon.
The Mexican managed just 25 laps, with his super-soft blast still 0.167s behind Grosjean's best effort on a set of softs.
Following mechanical issues in the morning that confined Rio Haryanto to a solitary installation lap just before lunch, the Indonesian rookie managed a further 57 across the afternoon, but three seconds down even using ultra-softs.
FRIDAY TEST TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m22.852s | - | 142 |
2 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m23.134s | 0.282s | 133 |
3 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m23.644s | 0.792s | 129 |
4 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m23.721s | 0.869s | 60 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m24.133s | 1.281s | 69 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m24.427s | 1.575s | 123 |
7 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m24.714s | 1.862s | 121 |
8 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1m24.859s | 2.007s | 90 |
9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m25.031s | 2.179s | 132 |
10 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m25.255s | 2.403s | 66 |
11 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas/Ferrari | 1m25.422s | 2.570s | 25 |
12 | Rio Haryanto | Manor/Mercedes | 1m25.899s | 3.047s | 58 |
13 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m26.140s | 3.288s | 70 |
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