Romain Grosjean has become the first driver to go fastest on two separate days in pre-season Formula 1 testing, topping the times on the second day in Barcelona.

Having been third fastest in the morning session, Grosjean was busy after lunch, completing a full 60-lap race simulation in the Lotus, using Pirelli's soft and hard compounds.

He backed that up with a series of fast laps, setting the benchmark time of 1m22.614s with just minutes remaining, on a set of soft tyres.

Jean-Eric Vergne ended the day second, despite not completing a flying lap following the lunch break. The Toro Rosso stopped and briefly caught fire with an engine problem right before lunch in Barcelona, bringing out the red flag.

While a full race simulation was planned for the afternoon session, the STR7 didn't appear again until within half an hour of the session's end, and was restricted to pitstop practice.

Neither Vergne nor Grosjean will be back in their respective cars for the rest of the test, with Daniel Ricciardo set to take over for Toro Rosso tomorrow, and Kimi Raikkonen jumping into the Lotus.

Sebastian Vettel was one of the big movers of the afternoon session, improving to a 1m23.361s to jump from fourth to third.

Behind Vettel it was Fernando Alonso, who didn't improve on his morning time, focussing instead on a full race simulation using soft and medium compound tyres.

Heikki Kovalainen was fifth thanks to a run on the supersofts, while Kamui Kobayashi improved to sixth before spending most of the afternoon in the pits, the Sauber sidelined by a hydraulic leak.

It was a similar story for seventh-placed Nico Hulkenberg, his Force India stopping with a drive-line problem just minutes after lunch and never reappearing.

Michael Schumacher improved his time slightly, but still finished the day eighth, while Lewis Hamilton failed to improve, finishing ahead of the Williams pair of Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado.

The Lotus is looking very good.

HRT aren't going to make it there tomorrow

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97814

Sergio Perez ended the morning session in Barcelona on top, setting the fastest time recorded at Barcelona this year.

The Sauber driver scorched his way to a 1m22.094s best while completing a qualifying simulation on soft tyres, just 40 minutes before the lunch break. He reappeared moments later on supersofts, but was unable to eclipse his previous benchmark time.

Perez's fastest time came just minutes after Daniel Ricciardo had jumped to the top of the sheets on supersoft tyres, the Australian just one of many drivers to break the 1m23s barrier during a flurry of quick laps on the red-marked Pirellis.

Ricciardo wound up second for the session, ahead of Felipe Massa, who sat on top of the sheets for much of the morning after setting his fastest time on supersofts quite early.

In total, there were eight drivers sub-1m23s, a stark contrast to yesterday (Friday) where only Romain Grosjean recorded a time in the 1m22s bracket.

Behind the leading three this morning it was Paul di Resta, Bruno Senna, and Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham.

Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg were also in the 1m22 bracket, although neither used supersoft tyres at all throughout the morning. Webber set his best lap with a late run on soft tyres to go seventh in the revised Red Bull. Rosberg meanwhile focussed almost exclusively on short soft tyre runs, setting a 1m22.932s best along the way to be eighth, as well as completing more laps than anyone else with 63 throughout the morning programme.

Neither Jenson Button nor Kimi Raikkonen did much work this morning, with Button only completing 17 laps, most of which were completed in the first two hours.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, spent most of the morning in the garage, having been unable to get comfortable with the Lotus's steering. He also only completed 17 laps, and was slowest of the 10 drivers, 3.526s behind Perez.


TODAY'S TIMES

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Perez Sauber 1m22.094s 49
2. Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1m22.155s +0.061 50
3. Massa Ferrari 1m22.413s +0.319 48
4. Di Resta Force India 1m22.446s +0.352 45
5. Senna Williams 1m22.480s +0.386 36
6. Kovalainen Caterham 1m22.630s +0.536 44
7. Webber Red Bull 1m22.662s +0.568 46
8. Rosberg Mercedes 1m22.932s +0.838 63
9. Button McLaren 1m23.409s +1.315 17
10. Raikkonen Lotus 1m25.620s +3.526 17

Quite protective, aren't they? :


Seems a bit silly considering the moment that car pulls out of the pits hundreds of photographers are photographing it from every angle on the track and then posting the images online .