Sebastian Vettel ended the eighth and final day of preseason Formula One testing at Circuit de Catalunya atop the time chart for Ferrari, as Mercedes showed a rare sign of weakness.
Once again, Mercedes focused on medium tires and the actual one-lap performance of the Silver Arrows car remains under a secret until Australia. Lewis Hamilton stopped on-track with a transmission issue late in the morning session, but it did not develop into a serious problem as teammate Nico Rosberg was able to participate in the afternoon session.
"This afternoon was probably the best the car has felt for me all the way through winter testing," said Rosberg. "So that was a really positive way to end the week. We have done so many miles in the past two weeks, so we can feel well prepared for Melbourne, and the team has done an incredible job to build such a reliable car. Of course, we haven't seen the full picture yet in terms of performance, and everybody will be excited to find that out in Australia."
Vettel set his fast time on supersoft tires, also logging the most miles recorded today with a total of 142 laps. Ferrari has experienced some reliability issues throughout the test, but those issues have seemingly improved on Friday.
The German also did a few laps with prototype "Halo" device. Ferrari has been fastest on five of the eight test days.
"We were able to do quite a lot of laps -- going through our program well, so I think it was a good test," said Vettel. "We have to see if this car can be a winner, but I think that the first impression was good and everything we have built is positive. So, overall, I am happy with the feeling in the car. And we are happy with the step we have made. In terms of reliability, though, Mercedes seems to be very strong, irrespective of the issue they had today."
Carlos Sainz was second fastest today as Toro Rosso again looked strong and ran reliably. He was almost 0.2 seconds off Vettel, but used the faster ultrasoft tires.
"This morning we tried the softer compounds and it all worked as expected," said Sainz. "This afternoon the conditions were tricky, as the wind picked-up massively, but we were still able to complete our program doing long-runs which went to plan. It was a good way to end what has been a fantastic four days of testing after a tough winter. To be here and complete so many laps each day is just amazing."
As Mercedes' fastest time was only good for fifth, Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez were third and fourth -- both drivers running supersofts. The Mexican did only 60 laps after a drive issue stopped Force India from running.
Haas F1 Team split driving duties to allow Esteban Gutierrez to make up for earlier lost time. He ran 25 laps after teammate Romain Grosjean did 66 laps earlier in the day. Haas remained the slowest car overall at the end of the test, with Manor posting a quicker with Pascal Wehrlein on Thursday.
Results from Friday's final preseason test session:
