Force India sixth quickest

BARCELONA - Force Indias Vitantonio Liuzzi clocked the sixth fastest time of one minute and 24.064 seconds around the 4.655 Kms long Circuit de Catalunya on the first day of the concluding pre-season Formula One test session.

Weather conditions were significantly better than the previous two weeks’ tests in Jerez and Liuzzi was able to complete 65 laps without major issue here Thursday.

With track conditions relatively ‘green’ Liuzzi’s programme principally concentrated on pit stop practice and drills and general set-up work.

On conclusion of the session, Liuzzi said: “Once we realised the track was really green and not good enough to conduct some useful testing, we concentrated on set-up and pit stop practice to get back into the rhythm of a race weekend.

“Overall it was quite OK but we concentrated a lot on the pit stop practice to get the guys back up to speed. Tomorrow will be where we move to look at performance and long runs so it should be a more representative day regarding the pace of the new car.”

Topping the time charts was Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) who clocked 1:21.487 in the course of his 109-lap run, followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Williams (1:22.407, 82 laps) and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP (1:22.515, 107 laps).

The four-day test concludes Sunday before the teams head to Bahrain for the seasons first Grand Prix scheduled for March 13-14.