For the second day in a row Sebastian Vettel finished testing at Barcelona at the top of the timesheets, this time thanks to a qualifying-style lap in the morning that produced a best time of 1:23.315.
The lap stood unchallenged throughout the afternoon, although Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso came close with a 1:23.519. Vettel drove a series of two-lap runs when he set his best time, with Red Bull completing tyre changes in between as if it were a real qualifying session. It is still unclear what kind of fuel level he was running, as the time - albeit with different circuit conditions, tyres and new regulations - was some way off the best laps recorded at last year's Barcelona test.
In front of packed grandstands cheering his name, Fernando Alonso was third fastest in the Ferrari, but the F150th Italia's bullet-proof reliability deserted him in the morning when a couple of minor issues saw him stop on track and limit his running. In total he completed 90 laps.
McLaren had a tougher time with Jenson Button's MP4-26 stuck in the garage for a large period of the morning with hydraulic issues. He crammed in more running in the afternoon but completed just 54 laps in total with the eighth fastest time.
Button finished just ahead of fellow Brit Paul di Resta, who limited his own running by locking his brakes and ending up in the gravel at turn one at around 15:30 local time. The mistake resulted in a stoppage as his car was retrieved by Force India - the third red flag in total.
Tonio Liuzzi, the man di Resta replaced at Force India, made a successful return to F1 with HRT testing last year's F110. He set a respectable time of 1:27.044 as the team evaluated him as a possible team-mate for Narain Karthikeyan, clocking up 70 laps overall and setting a quicker time than Karthikeyan's best lap on Friday.
Ricardo Teixeira was several seconds off the pace at the very bottom of the timesheets, after completing 26 laps at the wheel of the Lotus in the afternoon. It was Teixeira's second run in the new T128 after he completed a handful of laps at Valencia two weeks ago. But on Saturday he hardly had time to get used to the track before handing the car back to Heikki Kovalainen.
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