Kimi Raikkonen ensured Ferrari ended its pre-season testing at Jerez in the headlines by setting the fastest time of the day (1:20.841).
“Over the winter, we have made a good step forward and this car is definitely an improvement over the 2014 one,” Raikkonen said at day’s end. “It’s the whole package that has progressed, but there is still a lot of work to do.”
Second quickest was Felipe Nasr (1:22.019) in the Ferrari-powered Sauber C34. Defending champions Mercedes found themselves with the third best time of the day, thanks to world champion Lewis Hamilton (1:22.172), who completed 117 laps, more than any other driver.
Max Verstappen piloted his Toro Rosso to the fourth best lap (1:22.553), more than half a second ahead of Felipe Massa (1:23.116) in fifth.
Pocketing a helpful 53 laps for Lotus with its switch to Mercedes power was Romain Grosjean (1:23.802 ) who recorded the sixth fastest lap. Daniil Kvyat (1:23.975) managed to keep the front wing of the RB11 in one piece but was well off the leading pace, going seventh fastest.
In a consistent last place on the lap charts was the McLaren-Honda. Jenson Button (1:27.660) was at the wheel and did at least take the MP4-30 below the 1:30 barrier for the first time this week.
Pre-season testing will resume in two weeks time at Barcelona (19–22 February) and will conclude with a second session in Barcelona (26 February–1 March).
