Lewis Hamilton put in the fastest time of any set during the four days of testing at Jerez as all the teams seized on a dry afternoon to make their drivers work for their salaries.
The McLaren driver completed 113 laps with a fastest time of 1min 19.583sec, while the previous day’s pace-setter Jaime Alguersuari found himself slowest, almost four and a half seconds adrift in his Toro Rosso.
Most teams completed more than 80 laps, with Felipe Massa racking up 160 for Ferrari. Only Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi had a comparatively quiet day, but his 63 laps represented a significant step forward for the team after its struggles to run any sort of distance at all during the previous days.
Next-best behind Hamilton was Adrian Sutil for Force India, while Rubens Barrichello set the third best time as Williams decided to concentrate on their car instead of the performance of the Cosworth engine.
Robert Kubica was next for Renault ahead of Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, who confided to reporters that his team, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull seemed a step ahead of everyone else, but nobody had any idea who was actually fastest.
Both Schumacher and Massa stopped out on track after running out of fuel on long runs designed to test how far their cars could last on fumes.
Jerez test times day four
- Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1m19.583s (113 laps)
- Adrian Sutil, Force India: 1m20.180s (83 laps)
- Rubens Barrichello, Williams: 1m20.341s (90 laps)
- Robert Kubica, Renault: 1m20.358s (85 laps)
- Michael Schumacher, Mercedes: 1m20.613s (83 laps)
- Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1m21.203s (89 laps)
- Felipe Massa, Ferrari: 1m21.485s (160 laps)
- Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber: 1m22.134s (105 laps)
- Lucas di Grassi, Virgin: 1m22.912s (63 laps)
- Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso: 1m24.072s (98 laps)
Jerez test times – all four days combined
- Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1:19.583 (day four), 181 laps
- Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso: 1:19.919 (day three), 174 laps
- Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber: 1:19.950 (day two), 158 laps
- Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso: 1:20.026 (day two), 205 laps
- Adrian Sutil, Force India: 1:20.180 (day four), 131 laps
- Rubens Barrichello, Williams: 1:20.341 (day four), 210 laps
- Robert Kubica, Renault: 1:20.358 (day four), 188 laps
- Michael Schumacher, Mercedes: 1:20.613 (day four), 207 laps
- Jenson Button, McLaren: 1:20.618 (day two), 151 laps
- Nico Hulkenberg, Williams: 1:20.629 (day two), 185 laps
- Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber: 1:20.736 (day three), 163 laps
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes: 1:20.927 (day one), 110 laps
- Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1:21.203 (day four), 148 laps
- Fernando Alonso, Ferrari: 1:21.424 (day two), 217 laps
- Felipe Massa, Ferrari: 1:21.485 (day four), 232 laps
- Vitaly Petrov, Renault: 1:22.000 (day three), 95 laps
- Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1:22.043 (day two), 149 laps
- Lucas di Grassi, Virgin: 1:22.912 (day four), 71 laps
- Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India: 1:24.968 (day one), 71 laps
- Timo Glock, Virgin: 1:29.964 (day two), 16 laps