Raikkonen fastest in morning session of F1 preseason testing

The fastest driver on the final day was Kimi Raikkonen, who was nearly a second quicker than Daniil Kvyat.

Further down the pecking order, Pascal Wehrlein’s Manor was ninth fastest while Romain Grosjean debuted Haas F1’s challenger and recorded a best time of 1:28.399.

Kevin Magnussen, who was the busiest driver with 153 laps, put in another strong showing for Renault as he was fourth quickest on the soft tyres ahead of Max Verstappen on the mediums. On Tuesday, 4 time world driving champion Vettel blazed around the track in 1:22:800, almost a full second faster than Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Despite the early finish, McLaren had completed 257 laps over the previous three days in testing, marking a massive improvement of just 79 in the opening test of 2015.

The happiest was undoubtedly Hamilton, as Mercedes completed 229 more laps than they did a year ago.

Pre-season testing is not always easy to figure out.

“I want the public to enjoy Formula One”. It is about understanding how the auto behaves using different tires and with different fuel loads. “I don’t feel like it is going to change much”, he said.

Ecclestone also said then that FIA president Jean Todt was too much of a diplomat and should hand over the running of Formula One to someone else. “I just think these ideas they are coming up with are no good”.

Whilst Mercedes might not have topped the timing screens – that honour went to their nearest rival Ferrari – they have certainly topped the mileage table with an unprecedented number of laps across all four days.

Vettel continued to dominate top spot on the second day of testing, a day on which Pirelli’s brand new ultra-soft tyres made their first appearance. “No one can tell, but it seems to be a good vehicle even if there are still many things to try out”. Ferrari has gone to a pull rod system this year, something that is supposed to be more efficient aerodynamically but which places significantly more loads on the suspension linkage.

“Cars that should maybe qualify more in the front have problems and they need to start in the back”. According to BBC, Alonso stated that he would honor his agreement to the end, the Spanish racing driver having very high expectations and aspirations as for the following 2016 season about to commence. F1 has yet again taken a step to change but how attractive the change will prove will be clear by next month when the season gets underway with the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 2.