Rosberg tops morning session as Mercedes begin to show pace

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Nico Rosberg topped the times in the first four hours of running today, for the first time in 2016 completing a number of timed laps on the soft tyre. The results were fairly impressive, and by a margin the best time thus far set on the soft compound tyres.

The only lap in the previous 4 days of testing that was quicker was that set by Sebastian Vettel who was 2 tenths quicker on the ultra soft tyres, which are however thought to be more than a second a lap quicker than the soft compound.

The Ferrari, today steered by Raikkonen, was 1.8s slower than Rosberg's time, although the Finn did his best lap on the medium tyre.

Fernando Alonso in the McLaren enjoyed a rather productive morning as the team managed to make steady progress while adapting engine settings. After several improvements on the soft tyre towards the end of the session, Alonso was third fastest, however more than 2 seconds down on Rosberg. The Spaniard also caused the session to end ahead of schedule as he stopped just after the end of the pitlane, causing a red flag minutes before the scheduled end of the morning session.

Just at that time, Haryanto was completing his first lap after a long while in the garage with a "difficult to get to" oil leak.

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