McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes GP confirmed their
positions as front-runners for Formula One's championship as
preseason testing wrapped on Sunday with Lewis Hamilton setting the
fastest time.
Hamilton's best lap of 1 minute, 20.472 seconds allowed
McLaren to edge Red Bull's Mark Webber by just over two-hundreths
of a second, with the leading drivers separated by no more than
three-tenths of a second.
Felipe Massa of Ferrari was third ahead of Force India's
Adrian Sutil, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel fifth. Michael
Schumacher of Mercedes was sixth with a best lap of 1:20.745.
Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes all topped the time sheets
over the four-day session, but Ferrari remains the favorite inside
the paddock going into the season-opener at Bahrain on March 14.
"We are there in the middle of many competitive teams. The
important thing is that our car is reliable and we are there
fighting," Massa said. "I would not say (we are) the best, I would
say we are competitive. We are not here to be the champions of the
preseason, we are here to work on the car to have a good
championship."
Massa's time of 1:20.539 was only six-hundreths back of
Hamilton, while Sutil was 0.139 seconds behind, Vettel 0.195 and
Schumacher 0.273.
"They look very strong, no doubt, but it's still going to
depend on what people bring to Bahrain," Schumacher said of
McLaren's car.
On Friday, Schumacher said the German team was unlikely to
be fighting for a win at the season opener, but on Sunday he said
that things were "slowly coming together."
"Everyone had a go on low fuel loads and we're not a long
way off, just a few tenths of where we want to be," Mercedes team
principal Ross Brawn said. "There's a new package for Bahrain and I
hope that is going to make the difference."
Mercedes isn't going into the 19-race season with the clear
performance advantage that the former Brawn GP team enjoyed last
year, when it survived Honda's exit to surprise everyone by taking
the driver's and constructor's titles.
"I think we're close enough to have a go but obviously we're
not enjoying the situation of last year," Brawn said. "The teams
are all pretty close based on this test."
Rubens Barrichello of Williams and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi
finished within half a second of Hamilton as teams practiced
low-fuel runs for the best indicator on pace.
Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi was ninth with a time of
1:23.175, while Robert Kubica of Renault was 10th - 2.703 seconds
back of Hamilton. Kubica said it would be unlikely the French team
would fight for a top-three finish to start the season.
Sutil set his time late in the session as the Indian team
showed the pace that made it a surprise challenger at the end of
last year.
The only cars well back of the leaders were newcomers Lotus
and Virgin Racing, who both finished over four seconds back in 11th
and 12th, respectively.
