Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari finished the final hour of free practice in 14th and 16th places respectively at the Catalunya circuit.
The sun has been shining all weekend so far, making this the nicest weather we’ve experienced all season and there’s a great buzz in the paddock, which is also the fullest we have seen all year, given the races outside Europe seem to draw smaller numbers of paddock people. On this morning’s form you would have to say that anything but an all Red Bull Racing front row come the end of this afternoon’s qualifying would be unlikely.
Even though he only managed four laps because of a car problem this morning, Sebastian Vettel took the chequered flag at the end of the session to go quickest ahead of team-mate Mark Webber. Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes ahead of the McLaren duo of Hamilton and Button, with Rosberg sixth in the other Merc. It’s certainly hot this weekend in Barcelona but the hottest place to be this morning was the cockpit of one of the Lotus Renaults as Nick Heidfeld had to park his car at the side of the track near the fire marshals who promptly dealt with a major fire on his car. Time for the old joke about the two Spanish fire marshals, one called José and the other called Hose B!.
Spanish GP: Saturday Practice