Vettel waited to late in the day to go 1.111 seconds faster than Alonso

By Sarah Holt BBC Sport at the Circuit de Catalunya

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel beat Ferrari's Fernando Alonso to set the pace on the first day of the pre-season test at Spain's Circuit de Catalunya.

The world champion spent much of the day in the garage but he clocked a lap of one minute, 24.374 seconds in a late run to beat Alonso by 1.111 seconds.

Englishman Jenson Button was nearly two seconds back in fifth for McLaren.

Scot Paul di Resta finished sixth overall for Force India, with Michael Schumacher eighth in a Mercedes.

Overnight rain in Barcelona ensured the teams' first foray on the familiar Circuit de Catalunya, home to the Spanish Grand Prix, was in damp conditions.

While the teams took the opportunity to try out Pirelli's intermediate tyres, the times did not start tumbling until a dry line began to appear around lunchtime.

Once it did - and the cars had slick tyres fitted - Jamie Alguersuari's Toro Rosso and Button took turns at the top before being toppled by Alonso.

We had a good day and it is certainly satisfying to finish a race distance with all of the systems operational Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher

Ferrari reported that the Spaniard had spent the morning evaluating the car's aerodynamics before turning his attention to the tyres.

Alonso, who was courted by banners bearing his name, set to work and soon set his fastest time in the middle of a five-lap run.

While Ferrari were ominously reliable, with Alonso clocking more than 100 laps, Vettel was conspicuously quiet and Red Bull revealed they had opened up his car for some precautionary checks over lunch.

The 23-year-old returned to the track as the late afternoon sun bathed the grandstands and quickly took over at the top with a spell of furious laps, setting his best time on his first lap out of the box.

"We had a long break," said Vettel, who completed only 37 laps. "Longer than we expected.

"Nothing actually broke but at a test if there are a few things that you think might be a problem then you take the car apart and have a look.

"We still got some runs in at the end of the day and the car felt good."

McLaren were also encouraged by a steady period of running after a lack of spare parts, and other niggling problems, had hampered last week's first test with the 2011 car in Jerez.

The team said it was another day focused on development with test manager Indy Lall explaining: "It's been a very solid day and we're pleased with our progress.

"We also satisfactorily ran our drag reduction system [the moveable rear wing] for the first time in anger and continued work with [Kers]."

Button will stay in the car on Saturday with Lewis Hamilton taking over for the final two days.

It was also a positive day for Mercedes who solved their reliability problems to complete a race simulation complete with three pit-stops.

"We had a good day and it is certainly satisfying to finish a race distance with all of the systems operational and to have everything working fine," said Schumacher, who ran 68 laps during the race simulation.

"It was important to complete the simulation to understand how the car and tyres behave going from a heavy to lighter fuel load.

"Now we have to turn our focus to performance."

Alonso's Ferrari was fastest for much of the day

Renault, who have twice topped the testing timesheets, reported problems with their kinetic energy recovery system (Kers) although Nick Heidfeld had a decent run in the morning before Vitaly Petrov took over for 20 laps later in the day.

Heidfeld who was announced on Wednesday as the stand-in for the injured Robert Kubica, said it was too early to learn how competitive Renault had been, particularly as he finished bottom of the timings.

Di Resta recovered from a slow start to his day while the team got his Force India in racing condition, repairing the left-rear suspension Di Resta broke during Sunday's final day at the Jerez test.

The first stoppage of the day came just before the scheduled lunch break when Rubens Barrichello's Williams stopped out on track which forced an engine change.

Kamui Kobayashi took his Sauber off track but there was no major damage to the car and he went on to set the fourth fastest time of the day.

Alguersuari's day was interrupted by a spill into the gravel but the Toro Rosso driver was able to return to the track before the session ended.

The day closed in Barcelona with Hispania announcing that Vitantonio Liuzzi will test for the Spanish team on Saturday.

Team boss Colin Kolles described the 29-year-old Italian, who lost his Force India seat to Di Resta, as "a stronger contender for the second seat".

Formula 1 test, Circuit de Catalunya, day one, fastest times:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault one minute 24.374 seconds
2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:25.485
3. Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:25.638
4. Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:25.641
5 Jenson Button (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.365
6 Paul de Resta (GB) Force India-Mercedes 1:26.575
7 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Williams-Cosworth 1:26.912
8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes 1:27.512
9 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Hispania-Cosworth 1:28.393
10 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus-Renault 1:30.065
11 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin-Cosworth 1:30.950
12 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:35.174
13 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 1:44.324

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version