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The fourth and final day of testing at Jerez got off to a damp start, with some of the drivers opting to wait for the weather to clear before they made their way onto the track.

One amongst those was 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, who took to the track at 10:40 and embarked on a 29-lap long run. McLaren continued yesterday's programme, evaluating brake and brake materials while also working on weight distribution.

At the end of the day, when the circuit became completely dry, Lewis was able to complete one final run, fitting a fresh set of tyres to set three fast laps in the 1m19s bracket. His time of 1m19.583s was the fastest of this week's four-day test.

The second fastest time of the day, a 1:20.180, was set by Adrian Sutil in the Force India Formula One Team. Adrian completed 84 laps of the Spanish track to bring the total test mileage for the newly launched VJM03 to more than 1,200km.

Sutil said, "In the end we did some really good runs, concentraing mainly on getting as much experience as we could with the new tyres. Set-up wise, we were pretty good already and the car balance is not so far away. We also tried a couple of longer runs and saving the tyres seems to be the key point as we could set some quick times on the early laps but then the tyres dropped off towards the end of the runs. We weren't going for a time, just trying to get as much information as possible at this stage to feed back into the programme for next week."

Rubens Barrichello was third fastest in the Williams, setting a solid time of 1:20.341. A problem with the gearbox brought an end to the Brazilian's run after 90 laps, slightly fewer than he would have like to have done.

The veteran said, "We concentrated on set-ups today and completed 90 laps before we had the problem which the team are investigating now. The car has performed well these past two days and we’ve discovered some interesting things which will help us move it forward. I was hoping to go for a performance run at the end of the day because the car felt good, but unfortunately my session was cut short. There’s work to do in terms of improving performance, but I’m happy with the results that are coming out."

41-year old German superstar Michael Schumacher got back in the Mercedes today, taking over from Nico Rosberg. Michael completed a few exploratory laps in the rain before returning to the garage to wait for a dry line to emerge. The legend went back out once the track had dried sufficiently to run on slick tyres and made full use of the remaining track time to further develop the set-up of the car. Michael completed 84 laps over the course of the day setting a quickest time of 1:20.613.

Team principal Ross Brawn summed up the second week of testing perfectly, “It’s been a difficult week weather-wise for all of the teams out in Jerez however we have achieved a significant amount of mileage in both the wet and dry conditions and  completed some important test items on our pre-season testing programme. This week has enabled us to increase our understanding of both the car and the tyres and our focus for the final two tests will be to continue to develop the performance of the MGP W01 and ensure the team and our drivers are fully prepared for the first race.”

It was also good to see the Virgin Racing team finally make a solid run of 63 laps today with Luca di Grassi setting a competitive time of 1:22.912.

Timesheets

1. L Hamilton, McLaren, 1:19.583, 113 laps
2. A Sutil, Force India, 1:20.180, 84 laps
3. R Barrichello, AT&T Williams, 1:20.341, 90 laps
4. R Kubica, Renault, 1:20.358, 86 laps
5. M Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:20.613, 84 laps
6. S Vettel, Red Bull Racing, 1:21.203, 90 laps
7. F Massa, Ferrari, 1:21.486, 160 laps
8. P de la Rosa, BMW Sauber, 1:22.134, 105 laps
9. L di Grassi, Virgin, 1:22.912, 63 laps
10. J Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 1:24.072, 98 laps

File Photograph