Vettel quickest on Day 1 in Barcelona

Sebastian Vettel found himself in a familiar position after he took his Red Bull RB8 to the top of the timesheets in F1 testing overnight. The teams have arrived at Barcelona for four days of testing and with the launch of the Mercedes AMG F1 W03 all the major teams are now running their 2012 cars.

Vettel was the fastest man in the morning session and was the only driver out of the top seven to improve his times in the warmer afternoon running. His morning time was on Pirelli’s medium tyres and he managed a small improvement later in the day on the hard compound.

The day was otherwise uneventful with Lotus ending the day disappointed following Romain Grosjean’s complaints that something wasn’t right in the E20-02 chassis. As a result of this setback Lotus has withdrawn from the next three days of testing as well. Lotus ran their E20-01 chassis in Jerez and can take some comfort that it performed quite well.

2012 F1 pre-season testing – Barcelona (Day 1)

1. Vettel, Red Bull – 1m23.265s (79 laps)
2. Hulkenberg, Force India – 1m23.440s +0.175 (97 laps)
3. Hamilton, McLaren – 1m23.590s +0.325 (114 laps)
4. Ricciardo, Toro Rosso – 1m23.618s +0.353 (76 laps)
5. Alonso, Ferrari – 1m24.100s +0.835 (75 laps)
6. Schumacher, Mercedes – 1m24.150s +0.885 (51 laps)
7. Perez, Sauber – 1m24.219s +0.954 (66 laps)
8. Senna, Williams – 1m25.711s +2.446 (97 laps)
9. Kovalainen, Caterham – 1m26.035s +2.770 (31 laps)
10. Grosjean, Lotus – 1m26.809s +3.544 (7 laps)
11. Pic, Marussia* – 1m28.026s +4.761 (121 laps)

All Timing Unofficial
*2011 car

[Source: Autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]