Sebastian Vettel recorded the fastest time on the opening day of the four-day test at Barcelona, edging out long-time leader Fernando Alonso in the last hour.
It was a slightly distracted day at the Catalunya circuit, with much of the talk centring on events in Bahrain and the possibility the final round of testing could be moved back to Spain. The teams meet tonight to discuss the situation, and Bernie Ecclestone's eyebrow-raising remarks will not have helped the mood.
Many of the fastest times of the day came in the second half of the morning. The first couple of hours saw drivers tentatively head out onto a track wet - but drying - after Thursday's torrential rain. As conditions improved, so did the lap times. In the afternoon the pattern was for longer runs, Michael Schumacher leading the way with 90 laps as he undertook a race simulation with regular pit stops.
Alonso started cautiously as Ferrari opted for constant-speed aero testing, but when he returned on slicks he straight away set the fastest time and he remained top of the pile until Vettel usurped him. As has been the case at Valencia and Jerez, Alonso, who had removed the beard he sported in previous tests, was the reason many fans had turned up and his every move was scrutinised closely.
Vettel had been largely absent other than a couple of short morning runs, and he only ventured out for 17 laps after lunch, but almost the last of those in the final quarter-of-an-hour was the one that mattered as he clipped more than a second off Alonso.
Jenson Button had looked impressive as the track dried, and until Alonso got serious was the quickest, but he got down to more routine work in the afternoon.
Vitaly Petrov had a frustrating day. He was supposed to have the car throughout, but his new team-mate Nick Heidfeld was given the first hour or so to enable him to work on his pit stops. But as he handed over the Renault developed software issues and when Petrov finally emerged his 20 laps were far more stop than start.
Paul di Resta was sidelined until 80 minutes from the end, but when he appeared he wasted no time and finished sixth fastest.
Narain Karthikeyan was still in the 2010 HRT - the 2011 version will be unveiled in the final round of testing - but got 116 valuable laps under his belt, one more than Jerome d'Ambrosio in the Virgin.
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