Circuit de Catalunya: 2013 Testing Day Seven

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of pre-season testing at Barcelona on Saturday, clocking a lap almost a second quicker than anybody else in the last two weeks. The Mercedes driver set a rapid pace in the morning, producing a 1’20.558 to go fastest on soft tyres. A later tun on the same rubber produced a lap just a few hundredths of a second quicker.

On his final day of testing before making his Mercedes race debut in Australia,Hamilton completed 117 laps, (equivalent to 545 kilometres) to take his total pre-season mileage in the F1 W04 to 2,585 kilometres.

After two days of rain the weather took a turn for the better with track temperatures reaching 30C by midday and the Circuit de Catalunya was bathed in sunshine. Most teams completed over 30 laps before lunch, but Lotus were among the exceptions as an unwell Kimi Raikkonen was unable to drive the car.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was 0.708s off the lead with his quickest lap when he suffered a shock with 20 minutes remaining. The Ferrari's left-front tyre flew off the car at high speed between turns nine and ten. Massa was able to come to a controlled stop in the run-off area and was unharmed but did not return to the track for the final five minutes before the chequered flag.

The Force India of Adrian Sutil was an impressive third, while Williams were highly encouraged by Pastor Maldonado’s and Valtteri Bottas’s fourth and fifth places respectively.

Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez was sixth fastest ahead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull who improved his time in the final five minutes to go seventh. Sergio Perez was eighth fastest as McLaren managed to complete 101 laps. Jean-Eric Vergne was ninth fastest on his final day in the Toro Rosso. 

With Kimi Raikkonen sidelined at the last minute, Lotus had their reserve driver Davide Valsecchi, take over at short notice and the team faced a delay getting him out at the start of the test. While Romain Grosjean headed back to the track for the afternoon session a car problem halted Valsecchi after just 16 laps. They finished the day in tenth and 11th spots, with Grosjean just edging out the reserve in the timesheets.

At Marussia, newest driver, Jules Bianchi was quickly up to speed, fitting in with his new team and getting into the groove. He completed 65 laps and seemed happy with his new surroundings. His best time of 1’24.028 was 1.1s faster than the best time achieved by Max Chilton in the car over the previous six days.

Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde may have finished last on the timesheet (and cause one of the three red flags of the day), but the Dutchman was the day’s busiest driver, completing a very respectable 126 laps in the CT03.

Valsecchi was the cause of the first red flag in the morning session as his car halted on track after 16 laps. van der Garde caused the morning’s other red flag when a sensor failure brought him to a halt. Massa was the driver to bring out the third and final red flag of the day with the tyre issue.

*** Food poisoning was believed to be the cause of Raikkonen's illness and it remains to be seen whether he will be fit enough to drive on Sunday.

Times

	Driver	Car	Best time	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes W04	1:20:558	117
2.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F138	1:21.266	94
3.	Adrian Sutil	Force India VMJ06	1:21.627	109
4.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:22.305	34
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams FW34	1:22.468	31
6.	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber C32	1:22.553	99
7.	Mark Webber	Red Bull RB9	1:22.658	57
8.	Sergio Perez	McLaren MP4-28	1:22.694	101
9.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR8	1:23.223	114
10.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E21	1:23.380	45
11.	Davide Valsecchi	Lotus E21	1:23.448	16
12.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia MR02	1:24.028	73
13.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham CT03	1:24.235	126