Barcelona I, day 4: Kobayashi tops morning timesheets

Day 4 / AM Session – February 24th 2012; Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

The final day of testing in Barcelona this week kicked off this morning, and it would be Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi who would end the morning session at the top of the time sheets. This is the eighth different driver in eight test days to top the time sheets by the close of the morning session.

On a set of the super soft Pirelli compound tyres, Kobayashi would set his quickest lap of 1:22.312 late in the morning session, reclaiming the place from Jenson Button who had knocked him off earlier. The time set would also trump the fastest lap of the Barcelona week set by Pastor Maldonado yesterday, meaning to date, Kobayashi is now the fastest man in Barcelona this test.

However, Pastor Maldonado, the second quickest man in Barcelona this week, would rise to the challenge set by the Sauber C31. Maldonado and Williams opted to run the car as much as possible this morning, completing the second most laps on the morning session, 86 so far, and would place his Williams F1 FW34 in second place on the timesheets, just 0.249 seconds behind the Sauber.

Jenson Button on the hard Pirelli compound would come third fastest this morning, less than a second off the pace, and with 50 laps complete.

Paul di Resta would find himself fourth on the time sheets this morning, getting the Force India VJM05 well within a second off the pace. However, and over steer into the gravel trap would restrict the teams running time, and di Resta would only be able to make the last ten minutes of the morning session. The gravel trap incident brought the one and only red flag of the morning, and restricted di Resta to just 45 laps.

Felipe Massa got the morning off to a strong start, initially taking P1 before slowly being bumped down to P5 by the end of the session. Focusing on aerodynamic tests, 56 laps would be achieved, putting the Italian outfit on target, for the first time this week, of reaching 100 laps minimum. It is yet to be seen if the team will achieve this marker though.

Mark Webber would run for 40 laps this morning in the Red Bull RB8, achieving sixth place, with the sister team car of Toro Rosso and rookie driver Jean Eric Vergne just 0.018 seconds behind him in seventh.

Nico Rosberg had an absolutely huge morning in the Mercedes AMG F1 W03. Although only placing eighth of the nine runners this morning, the team choose to focus early on race simulation, and Rosberg would finish the morning with a whopping 92 laps to his name. The team are now well on track to complete the day with the highest number of laps should they continue with the same programme this afternoon.

Caterham F1 would have yet another problem filled morning. With only 16 laps completed, the team would retire the car for the morning, citing a small electrical problem with the engine. As a result, the team would have to strip down the entire car to put a new engine in, and are rebuilding the car over the lunch break with a view to running again this afternoon. The short time spent on track meant Heikki Kovalainen would finish ninth and last on the time sheets with a time of 1:27.047 and nearly five seconds off the pace.

Marussia F1, although still at the track, would not run this morning as a problem was found with the suspension of the 2011 challenger, the MVR-02. Working hard on the car, the team hope that rookie driver Charles Pic will be able to give the MVR-02 one last run before the first test in Barcelona comes to a close this afternoon.

Day 4 AM Session times and total lap numbers can be seen below:

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