Sergio Perez sets pace on penultimate morning of final pre-season test

The Sauber driver scorched his way to a 1m22.094s best while completing a qualifying simulation on soft tyres, just 40 minutes before the lunch break. He reappeared moments later on supersofts, but was unable to eclipse his previous benchmark time.

Perez's fastest time came just minutes after Daniel Ricciardo had jumped to the top of the sheets on supersoft tyres, the Australian just one of many drivers to break the 1m23s barrier during a flurry of quick laps on the red-marked Pirellis.

Ricciardo wound up second for the session, ahead of Felipe Massa, who sat on top of the sheets for much of the morning after setting his fastest time on supersofts quite early.

In total, there were eight drivers sub-1m23s, a stark contrast to yesterday (Friday) where only Romain Grosjean recorded a time in the 1m22s bracket.

Behind the leading three this morning it was Paul di Resta, Bruno Senna, and Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham.

Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg were also in the 1m22 bracket, although neither used supersoft tyres at all throughout the morning. Webber set his best lap with a late run on soft tyres to go seventh in the revised Red Bull. Rosberg meanwhile focussed almost exclusively on short soft tyre runs, setting a 1m22.932s best along the way to be eighth, as well as completing more laps than anyone else with 63 throughout the morning programme.

Neither Jenson Button nor Kimi Raikkonen did much work this morning, with Button only completing 17 laps, most of which were completed in the first two hours.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, spent most of the morning in the garage, having been unable to get comfortable with the Lotus's steering. He also only completed 17 laps, and was slowest of the 10 drivers, 3.526s behind Perez.

TODAY'S TIMES

Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps
 1.  Perez          Sauber          1m22.094s           49
 2.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m22.155s  +0.061   50
 3.  Massa          Ferrari         1m22.413s  +0.319   48
 4.  Di Resta       Force India     1m22.446s  +0.352   45
 5.  Senna          Williams        1m22.480s  +0.386   36
 6.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m22.630s  +0.536   44
 7.  Webber         Red Bull        1m22.662s  +0.568   46
 8.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m22.932s  +0.838   63
 9.  Button         McLaren         1m23.409s  +1.315   17
10.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m25.620s  +3.526   17


All Timing Unofficial