Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel has topped the time sheets at the end of the opening day of running in Barcelona, Spain.
Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) proved fastest in the early morning before Vettel moved to the top of the charts just prior to midday.
In the late afternoon, Vettel became the only man in the top seven to improve his time – a 1:23.3s lap putting the German 0.175s clear of his countryman Hulkenberg.
Lewis Hamilton was third fastest in the McLaren, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Michael Schumacher (Mercedes).
Schumacher later declared himself encouraged by the performance of the new Mercedes W03, despite his day being hampered by a hydraulic issue.
In even more trouble was Lotus, with the team pulling out of the entire test citing an undisclosed chassis fault that cannot be fixed at the circuit.
The team had brought its second E20 model chassis to the Barcelona test, following on from the strong form that the first one had shown at Jerez.
Romain Grosjean’s early efforts in the car at Barcelona left the Frenchman 10th fastest by day’s end.
See below for the Day 1 times
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1m23.265s | |
| 2 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1m23.440s | +0.175 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1m23.590s | +0.325 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1m23.618s | +0.353 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1m24.100s | +0.835 |
| 6 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1m24.150s | +0.885 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | 1m24.219s | +0.954 |
| 8 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 1m25.711s | +2.446 |
| 9 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 1m26.035s | +2.770 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1m26.809s | +3.544 |
| 11 | Charles Pic | Marussia | 1m28.026s | +4.761 |
