The reigning World Champion set the fastest time of the day at the end of the morning session. It was unbeaten in the afternoon as the teams concentrated on long stints.

The Red Bull driver completed a race simulation in the afternoon, showing a good pace and gathering valuable data on the behavior of the Pirelli tyres through long stints. However, his work was interrupted when Paul di Resta spun his Force India at Turn 1 and brought the red flag out.

Vettel’s RB7 then suffered a small mechanical glitch which cost the team some track time.

Alguersuari was second fastest for Toro Rosso. Ferrari’s Alonso was third fastest ahead of this morning’s pacesetter Rubens Barrichello and Renault’s Nick Heidfeld.

Jenson Button got some mileage under his belt today as he completed 54 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya. He only set the eighth fastest time and there was some concern in the McLaren garage as the team is still off the pace of its rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. An unnamed engineer from the Woking-based team admitted yesterday that they needed to find a full second to be able to challenge the RB7 and F150.

As expected, Ricardo Teixeira has another go at the wheel of the Lotus T1258. He completed 26 laps before Heikki Kovalainen took over.

Fastest lap times of the day: