Red Bull showed the first signs that its mighty qualifying pace in 2010 could spill over into 2011, with Sebastian Vettel rocketing to the top of the timing screens on Saturday morning at Barcelona.
After running slightly off the headline pace at last week's Jerez test, Red Bull put the new RB7 through its paces by sending Vettel out on a series of qualifying-simulation runs before lunch. His best lap of 1:23.315 was some way off last year's testing pace - so was probably not on ultra-low fuel - but still much faster than anything else at the track this week. On each of the two-lap runs his lap times dropped off on the second lap, most likely due to tyre degradation, and in between runs the team practised tyre changes as they would under qualifying conditions.
Rubens Barrichello came closest to Vettel's time with a 1:24.042, but his programme was not as aggressive as Vettel's and was focussed on slightly longer runs with a quick lap early on. Nico Rosberg was third fastest in the Mercedes but a full 1.415 seconds off the Red Bull.
Red Bull's biggest rivals in 2010, Ferrari and McLaren, had more frustrating mornings. Fernando Alonso caused an early red flag when he stopped on track with a minor electronics issue and was hit by more problems before lunch, forcing the Spaniard to stop early. Up until now the Ferrari F150th Italia's reliability has been among the very best, although the team insists there are still only minor issues with the car.
Jenson Button was also having problems with his McLaren, which stayed in the garage for the majority of the morning. He completed seven installation laps early on, but then had to wait several hours before setting a flying lap just before lunch that was only good enough for ninth.
In tenth place Tonio Liuzzi returned to action for the first time since the Abu Dhabi test last year. The ex-Force India driver was at the wheel of the HRT F110 being evaluated by the team as a possible team-mate for Narain Karthikeyan. He completed 45 laps in total and set faster times than both Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber and Timo Glock in the Virgin.
On Friday HRT boss Colin Kolles said: "Tonio is a strong contender for the second seat given that he has a lot of experience in Formula One."
Testing resumes at 14:00 local time.
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