The first test day at Jerez kicked off with a mostly wet morning, before the rain began to subside around lunchtime, although the session remained wet.
Mark Webber had to walk back to the pits after his new Renault powered RB6 broke down with an oil leak bringing out the first red flag of the test.
The team said the stoppage was actually “precautionary”, and Australian Webber also played down the problem as being “nothing major”.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was consistently quick throughout the opening morning of the Jerez test, ahead of the Toro Rosso (Sebastien Buemi) and Williams (Nico Hulkenberg) cars.
Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest for Ferrari, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber).
Jenson Button’s new McLaren was featuring a bizarre and huge sensor attached to one side of the cockpit, but the British team said it did not indicate an aerodynamic problem.
Tonio Liuzzi gave Force India’s VJM03 its proper test debut, while Timo Glock took the Virgin VR-01 out on it’s maiden Jerez test debut. Glock only managed to complete five laps.
Nico Rosberg ended the session prematurely by five minutes due to a mechanical error which bought out the second and final red flag of the session.
Day One Times (Jerez):
| 1. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:20.927 | 56 laps | ||||
| 2. | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:21.031 | +0.104 | 84 laps | |||
| 3. | N. Hulkenberg | Williams GP | 1:22.243 | +1.316 | 118 laps | |||
| 4. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:22.895 | +1.968 | 88 laps | |||
| 5. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:23.287 | +2.360 | 55 laps | |||
| 6. | J. Button | McLaren | 1:24.947 | +4.020 | 68 laps | |||
| 7. | V. Liuzzi | Force India | 1:24.968 | +4.041 | 71 laps | |||
| 8. | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:25.440 | +4.513 | 27 laps | |||
| 9. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:26.502 | +5.575 | 50 laps | |||
| 10. | T. Glock | Virgin Racing | 1:38.734 | +17.807 | 5 laps |
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