- Jerez Test, Day Four
Mercedes ahead of the game on final morning
Mercedes used the final morning of the Jerez test to underline its impressive reliability this week, with a 91-lap marathon in the first three and half hours of the day despite damp conditions.
Nico Rosberg completed a race simulation, with long stints interspersed by brief returns to his pit box. In the afternoon Lewis Hamilton will take over the car to make up for the slightly more limited running he has had this week.
The show of strength will rub salt into the wounds rivals Red Bull, who completed just seven laps to add to the 14 completed in the first three days. On Friday the RB10 still had visible cooling issues, with paint bubbling on the bodywork and makeshift cooling solutions being hacked into Adrian Newey's tightly-packaged design.
Intermediates were the tyre of choice for most of the morning after the teams were greeted by rain clouds and a wet track at 9:00. However, Friday broke the trend in that all the cars had ventured out for at least one exploratory installation lap within an hour or two. The drying conditions meant Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in the final 30 minutes before 13:00 with a time of 1:35.334.
Rosberg was second fastest with one of his laps during his long run, with Kevin Magnussen third fastest after 43 laps when the track was still damp. Felipe Massa also had a fairly productive morning with 34 laps in the new Williams and was fourth fastest.
Force India reserve driver Daniel Juncadella got his first taste of the VJM07 on Friday with 32 laps, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who enjoyed Caterham's most successful morning so far with a total of 45 laps in the Renault-powered CT05.
After sitting in the garage throughout his first scheduled day in the Toro Rosso on Wednesday, Daniil Kvyat finally made his pre-season testing debut with eight laps in the STR9. Sauber put its C33 back together after Adrian Sutil's shunt on Thursday and he completed 42 laps before a pause in proceedings ahead of the team's lunch break. The new Marussia MR03 returned to the track briefly for five laps on its second day of running before a long period in the garage.
Times at 1.00
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.344 61 laps Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.951 91 laps Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:38.391 49 laps Felipe Massa Williams 1:39.256 34 laps Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:41.132 32 laps Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:43.193 45 laps Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:44.016 8 laps Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:44.224 43 laps Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:45.374 7 laps Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:48.192 5 laps
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