As per usual, the Formula One circuit will run a pair of pre-season tests at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain. While it’s not the first test of the year, it’s the first one that teams and driver will use to properly gauge how they stand heading into the season. That’s because the teams will spend two weeks in February and March here but also a weekend in May for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Day 1 (February 19)

If you’re hoping for a close season (and who isn’t), the opening day of testing made it look promising. Nico Rosberg only outpaced Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen by only seven-thousandths of a second on a relatively incident-free day. Fernando Alonso made his preseason debut and was only one-third of a second behind with Sebastian Vettel only one-hundredth of a second behind that.

1. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:22.616
2. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus-Renault – 1:22.623
3. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 1:22.952
4. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull-Renault – 1:22.965
5. Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault – 1:23.733
6. Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.884
7. Sergio Perez – McLaren-Mercedes – 1:24.124
8. Paul di Resta – Force India-Mercedes – 1:24.144
9. Esteban Gutierrez – Sauber-Ferrari – 1:25.124
10. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – 1:26.747
11. Charles Pic – Caterham-Renault – 1:27.534

Day 2 (February 20)

For the second day in a row, a Mercedes powered car was fastest. This time, it was the McLaren of Sergio Perez who topped the timesheets. For the second-straight day, Vettel led most of the day but was pipped to the post in the final half-hour of running. Also, for the second day running, Raikkonen had a technical problem that limited his running. On the first day, he had a telemetry issue that needed sorting to collect critical data. On day two, the Lotus E21 had a gearbox problem. The result was that the Finn only managed 87 laps over the two days.

1. Sergio Perez – McLaren-Mercedes – 1:21.848
2. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull-Renault – 1:22.197
3. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus-Renault – 1:22.697
4. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:22.726
5. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 1:23.247
6. Valtteri Bottas – Williams-Renault – 1:23.561
7. Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.718
8. Paul di Resta – Force India-Mercedes – 1:23.971
9. Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber-Ferrari – 1:24.205
10. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – 1:25.115
11. Charles Pic – Caterham-Renault – 1:26.243

Day 3 (February 21)

He may not have run at all in Jerez but that didn’t slow down Fernando Alonso at Barcelona. It was inevitable that he’d finally top a day and it was on the third day that he led the field by nearly three-tenths of a second. That’s also just fractionally slower than yesterday’s best time by Sergio Perez.

The day was also featured the return of Adrian Sutil to Formula One with Force India. His assault on the field wasn’t quite up to the pace of Jules Bianchi last week. He was just over one-second off Alonso’s pace on the day. And while most teams are limiting their testing to their two race drivers, Sutil became the fourth driver to take the wheel of the VJM06.

1. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 1:21.875
2. Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber-Ferrari – 1:22.160
3. Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault – 1:22.188
4. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:22.611
5. Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault – 1:22.675
6. Valtteri Bottas – Williams-Renault – 1:22.826
7. Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes – 1:22.840
8. Adrian Sutil – Force India-Mercedes – 1:22.877
9. Mark Webber – Red Bull-Renault – 1:23.024
10. Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.366
11. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – 1:25.690
12. Giedo van der Garde – Caterham-Renault – 1:26.177

Day 4 (February 22)

The final day of the first Barcelona test didn’t give much indication about how the cars really performed against each other because we had our first wet test day of running. The drivers showed their rain rust as there were eight red flags on the day mostly for cars running off the road but there were a couple of technical issues that required a stoppage.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest on the day but even he wasn’t able to avoid problems as he stopped during the afternoon with a technical problem.

1. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:23.282
2. Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes – 1:23.633
3. Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:24.071
4. Jules Bianchi – Force India-Mercedes – 1:25.732
5. Esteban Gutierrez – Sauber-Ferrari – 1:26.239
6. Giedo van der Garde – Caterham-Renault – 1:27.429
7. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:27.563
8. Mark Webber – Red Bull-Renault – 1:27.616
9. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – 1:29.902
10. Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault – 1:34.800
11. Valtteri Bottas – Williams-Renault – No Time
12. Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault – No Time

Best Times of the Test

1. Sergio Perez – McLaren-Mercedes – 1:21.848
2. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 1:21.875
3. Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber-Ferrari – 1:22.160
4. Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault – 1:22.188
5. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull-Renault – 1:22.197
6. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:22.616
7. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus-Renault – 1:22.623
8. Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault – 1:22.675
9. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:22.726
10. Valterri Bottas – Williams-Renault – 1:22.826
11. Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes – 1:22.840
12. Adrian Sutil – Force India-Mercedes – 1:22.877
13. Mark Webber – Red Bull-Renault – 1:23.024
14. Jean-Eric Vergne – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.366
15. Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.718
16. Paul di Resta – Force India-Mercedes – 1:23.971
17. Max Chilton – Marussia-Cosworth – 1:25.115
18. Esteban Gutierrez – Sauber-Ferrari – 1:25.124
19. Jules Bianchi – Force India-Mercedes – 1:25.732
20. Giedo van der Garde – Caterham-Renault – 1:26.177
21. Charles Pic – Caterham-Renault – 1:26.243
22. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:27.563