Raikkonen fastest on final day of testing

Kimi Raikkonen put Lotus on top of the timings for the third time in four days, topping the last day of the Barcelona test, and the last day of pre-season testing.


Raikkonen was fastest on the last day today

The Finn's time of 1.22.030, was the fastest time seen at either of the two Barcelona tests. Raikkonen used a measuring device which wasn't aestethically pleasing, but the Enstone outfit used it as a piece of measuring equipment. Raikkonen said of his day in the E20 "I was happy with today’s running. We didn’t have any major issues so it was certainly better than yesterday. Everything worked, we tried a lot of set-ups on the car and it all came together well. I spent a long time in the car but I feel fine. It was also cooler today so the tyres didn’t work as well but everything was okay. Of ourse, the fastest time at the end of the day looks good but no-one will know how fast any of the cars are until we get to qualifying at Albert Park. All the changes we have made over testing have been improving the car, so we’ll have to see what happens in Melbourne in a couple of weeks’ time. I’m feeling positive." Raikkonen's best time, which was set just before the lunch break on soft tyres, was slightly faster than second placed Fernando Alonso's time, which came on super soft tyres. However, Alonso said to Spanish TV Cameras "In the first races we will suffer because we are not 100%." Bruno Senna was third fastest, and once again shared driving duties with team mate Pastor Maldonado.


Fernando Alonso's adoring Spanish fans

Nico Hulkenberg was fourth fastest, continuing Force India's strong pace in pre-season testing. Kamui Kobayashi was fifth fastest in the Sauber, the Japanese driver also caused a red flag when his engine blew. Lewis Hamilton was sixth fastest in the McLaren, while Vitaly Petrov was seventh fastest in the Caterham - despite the Russian causing a red flag when he stopped on track. Michael Schumacher was eighth for the Mercedes team, with Pastor Maldonado just behind in ninth. Daniel Ricciardo was tenth fastest in the Toro Rosso, while there was a shock as Sebastian Vettel was bottom of the timesheets. The World Champion had a troublesome day, with the Red Bull team continuing to work on their pre-Melbourne upgrade. In the morning, Vettel ran off track, damaging his front wing and diffuser. He then suffered gearbox problems later in the day. Vettel said of the upcoming seaso n"You never really know where you are until you get to Melbourne and everyone puts their pants down and you can see what they have got and you can show what you have got in qualifying," and when Vettel was asked to rate his pre-season testing out of ten, the World Champion responded "You always have things you hope were better, there are not many years you can give yourselves a 10. Overall we can be quite happy, happier than five and less than 10. Somewhere in between."

And with that, testing is brought to a close. It's been an intriguing and very challenging three tests, one at Jerez and two at Barcelona for all twelve teams. Only Marussia and HRT haven't run their 2012 cars in the tests, but we'll be seeing them tomorrow.

Day Four's times in full:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1.22.030
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1.22.250
3	Bruno Senna	Williams	1.22.296
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1.22.312
5	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1.22.386
6	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1.22.430
7	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1.22.795
8	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.22.939
9	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1.23.347
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1.23.393
11	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1.23.608

Keep with my blog for all the opinions, launches and testing updates throughout the winter, as we count down to the Australian Grand Prix.