• Jerez Testing

Vettel agrees big four are on top

Sebastian Vettel thinks Red Bull is one of four teams on top in testing © Sutton Images

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• News:
• Schumacher expects big four to dominate
  

• Drivers:
• Jaime Alguersuari
• |
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Michael Schumacher
• |
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• McLaren
• |
• Mercedes
• |
• Red Bull
• |
• Team Lotus
• |
• Toro Rosso

Sebastian Vettel has subscribed to Michael Schumacher's view that four teams currently look to be in the running for 2010 supremacy.

After testing in Jerez last week, Schumacher said that Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes looked likely to be fighting it out at the front this season. Over the four days of the test Vettel was just 13th fastest in the Red Bull, but indicated that his position wasn't representative of the car and said that he thought it was among the four front runners.

"It is very tight at the top," he said. "There are four teams [on the pace]. At one time someone has a nose in front, at another time it is someone else, which is pretty exciting anyway."

When asked if the Red Bull could dominate in the same way it did at some races at the end of last season, Vettel would not be drawn. But he did admit that he had a "good gut feeling" about the new RB6.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso believes that no one team has set down a marker yet: "Last year Brawn came along when everyone else had already laid their cards on the table and it was immediately clear that they had a winning car. This year it's different. No one is really standing out from the crowd as the ones to beat."

The combined time sheet of the four-day Jerez test threw up a mixed picture, with Sauber, Toro Rosso, Force India, Williams and Renault all looking competitive at one time or another.

When Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari was asked where he thought his car stacked up he said: "I think it's a highly competitive car, more than we expected and more than last year. We are quite close to Red Bull."

All 10 teams present at last week's test will remain in Jerez this week to complete another four days of running from Wednesday to Saturday. They will also be joined by the new Lotus outfit which launched its car on Friday.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.