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Hamilton tops the timesheets on final day of testing

NEWS STORY
28/02/2010

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets on the final day of pre-season testing, the session at the Circuit de Catalunya appearing to pose more questions than it answered.

Although the weather conditions weren't as good as those witnessed on the first two days, the fact that it was dry throughout, though at times just a little windy, allowed the eleven teams on duty to bring their programmes to a successful, and dry, conclusion.

With an eye on the new qualifying format that will see drivers running on low fuel for all three stages, today we witnessed the majority of drivers concentrating on these types of runs, hence the number of improvements.

Nonetheless, with just two weeks to go before the season kicks off in Bahrain, the fact that the top twelve drivers are covered by 0.501s means that fans are left guessing the true order of things.

Hamilton was back in the MP4-25 today, continuing the understanding, evaluation and development of the new components that Jenson Button had started yesterday. With a more innate understanding of the new package, the Englishman's engineers were able to spend the morning fine-tuning the car's set-up while also carrying out a number of pitstop practices.

At the end of the morning, the team undertook several simulated qualifying runs, thrilling the crowds by going head to head with Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher, who were also carrying out similar work.

For the final afternoon, the team ran another race simulation, carrying out three 22-lap stints. At the end of the day, Hamilton declared himself happy and comfortable with the new car and told his engineers that he's now looking forward to Bahrain. According to the Woking outfit, "the whole team keenly shares his sentiments".

Red Bull had both of its drivers on duty. Having had less time on track than expected yesterday, Sebastian Vettel started the test this morning with Mark Webber finishing the Austrian outfit's pre-season preparations in the afternoon.

It was a similar programme for both drivers which the team successfully completed; establishing the final set-ups for the start of the season with varying fuel loads.

"Losing a bit of time yesterday we didn't do everything we wanted to with Seb," admitted Ian Morgan, the team's head of race engineering, "so we got pretty much a day and half's testing into today, which is why we've done 137 laps. It's been busy but we've got a lot done.

"This final test was good for us. With our limited testing in the dry at the two Jerez tests, the four days of almost completely dry weather here meant that we got back on course and we've made a lot of progress this week. It's been a very good test."

Having driven the F10 on its track debut in Valencia a month ago, it fell to Felipe Massa to bring Ferrari's 2010 preparations to a close. The Brazilian had a packed programme, working on evaluating the handling of the car and the tyres under different fuel loads. He completed a total of 114 laps on his way to posting the third quickest time of the day, indeed, the week.

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