Barcelona day 4: Hamilton fastest on rainy day

The last day of testing this week ended today, and Mercedes left the Circuit de Catalunya fastest, thanks to Lewis Hamilton's lap of 1:23.282. The British driver took advantage of the weather improving after two hours of heavy rain with a lap on the medium compound tyres (white marking).

This lap time was the fastest because the rain returned after the lunch break, meaning all of the drivers were on the wet tyres, and therefore considerably slower.

Hamilton said, The conditions today meant that we didn't complete as many laps we would have done in the dry but we have gone through the test items that we wanted to achieve this week."

We have been working on our consistency over long runs and we managed one run this morning on dry tyres; the car felt okay but the conditions were also very cool, so we cannot draw too many conclusions."

Ex-team mate Button was in 2nd, and Jean-Éric Vergne set the 3rd fastest time in his Toro Rosso STR8.

Happy with his position, the Frenchman said, Another productive day, even with the rain, we had many things to test, especially on the aero side and I feel we got some good answers.

Later, it was useful for me to drive on the extreme and intermediate Pirellis and I got a good understanding of how they behave, even if the conditions were extremely cold, so it was actually surprising we had rain and not snow! Now I am looking forward to the final test, which will be very important for everyone.

After Adrian Sutil was given the chance to test the VJM06 yesterday, his rival for the second Force India seat, Jules Bianchi, took the car to the track today. The Italian finished 4th fastest and half a second ahead of Esteban Gutiérrez.

The Mexican said, For me it was the very first time I had driven a Formula One car in the wet, it was particularly interesting in the morning, when the track was wet to begin with and then started to dry out.

I was able to drive with dry tyres in very tricky conditions, which was a situation I could experience in a race. It was important for me to feel this change in conditions. In the afternoon I got the opportunity to compare the intermediate tyres with the full wets. I learned so much today. This was just what I needed.

However, he had taken a dive into the gravel trap in the morning when the track was wet.

Giedo van der Garde was 6th fastest, getting the Caterham around the track in 1:27.429, just over a tenth faster than Felipe Massa in the F138.

Webber, Chilton and Grosjean were in 8th, 9th and 10th, due to the Williams drivers not setting lap times. The team practiced their pit stops instead.

Despite the weather we were able to achieve a lot, said Valtteri Bottas.

The key things to work on as a driver are braking as late as possible for the pit-lane speed limit to minimize the time lost, perfecting your positioning in the box and finally pulling away quickly and cleanly."

Its really interesting as there are a lot of things to think about, but the better I get, the more trust you build with the pit crew which means they are able to react even quicker. Well be doing a few more at the next test but then I feel I will be ready for Melbourne when it comes to pit stops.

We won't see much Formula 1 action now until the 28th of February when Barcelona Part 2 will be on until the 3rd of March.