It's interesting to note that (British) newspapers which haven't covered the first three days of the Barcelona test, finally sprang to life in the wake of Fernando Alonso's "horror" crash shortly before lunch today.
Even though McLaren was quick to point out that his trip, by helicopter, to a local hospital was merely cautionary, and that a subsequent CT scan revealed him to be "uninjured" and "fine", the usual suspects were soon on the case.
While his car incurred sizeable damage, the accident happening in a blind spot for the circuit's CCTV, Sebastian Vettel, who was behind the Spaniard when it happened, said it was a "strange crash" but "no big deal". Nonetheless, headlines containing "150 mph crash", "horror" and "wall" soon began appearing.
The crash, the exact cause of which is still the subject of intense speculation, some even suggesting Alonso had been taken ill just before the incident, brought (another) disappointing test to a close for the Woking outfit. Jenson Button, who was scheduled to drive this afternoon, was left kicking his heels and wondering what progress might be made before the final test kicks off in just four days.
The red flag that followed Alonso's crash was one of six today. Whilst most were for spins (yes, we mean you Nico Rosberg) and technical failures, Carlos Sainz also crashed, making a mistake at the very same corner (T3) where his countryman had come to grief earlier.
For the third time in four days, a Lotus driver sits atop the timesheets, the honour today going to Romain Grosjean. His 1:24.067 is the quickest time of the week, 1.165s quicker than Lewis Hamilton's pole time here last year. However, it was set on the super-soft rubber, whereas second quickest runner, Nico Rosberg, posted his best time, 1:24.321 on mediums.
If, as Pirelli claims, there is a 1.5s difference between the medium and supersofts, Mercedes is looking very, very good.
That said, Force India suffered a (Mercedes) power unit issue that brought its day to a close after just 36 laps, so clearly the Mercedes power unit, albeit in this case the 2014 version, isn't bullet-proof.
Having spent yesterday focussing on pit stops, today Valtteri Bottas concentrated on longer runs. Indeed, like Grosjean, a race simulation was the order of the day for the Finn, though the continual red flags played havoc with progress. Nonetheless, with another 129 laps under its belt, the Grove outfit will be feeling very confident.
It was an anonymous day for Sebastian Vettel, the German completing just 76 laps and finishing 2.2s off the pace, on the soft compound, whilst it is unclear if a late stoppage for Felipe Nasr was down to the (Ferrari) power unit in the back of the Sauber.
In perfect conditions, the nine drivers on duty completed 768 laps, and with just four more days of testing before Melbourne, as much as things look positive for Mercedes and Williams, they look bleak for McLaren and Honda.
At the wheel of the E23 for the first time this week, Romain Grosjean completed 111 laps over the course of a programme consisting of set-up evaluations and performance simulations.
"It was great to get behind the wheel of the E23 once more," said the Frenchman. "Conditions were pretty tricky with quite a bit of wind, especially early on, but the car ran well, meaning we could complete the tests we wanted to - even if I had to modify my lines in the morning because the wind was pushing the car! We made some good improvements with the balance and set-up over the course of the day and it felt a lot better after we made changes for the afternoon. We completed a very promising mileage and it's always good to see your name at the top of the timing monitors, even if it is far too early to know what everyone else is doing."
"We've enjoyed a solid first test in Barcelona with good reliability and encouraging performance," said Technical Director, Nick Chester. "The biggest positive we have seen so far is the reliability of the E23 which is enabling us to push along with our assessments and evaluations over the course of 361 laps or 1680km. It was good to have Romain in the car so we could add his feedback to that we've already received here from Pastor and Jolyon. Today was particularly windy, making it harder to work on car balance assessments, but we conducted a productive race simulation in the afternoon as well as other performance evaluations. During this test, we've completed plenty of laps so we have plenty to be working on over the next three days before we're back in action here."
Nico Rosberg's schedule consisted of setup analysis work and practice starts, the German completing 68 laps before lunch and a further 63 after.
"Today was actually a really difficult day," said Rosberg. "In the morning the tyres weren't really working properly and then it was so windy out on track until late in the day. It was difficult to understand in the car because every run was different from corner to corner. Depending on where the wind was coming from, the car felt totally different. So it really made testing extremely tough today. Even the sun was making it tricky at the end once the wind dropped down, as it was just on the horizon. Some of the corners were absolutely blind so you just had to commit to it by memory. But anyway, together with the team I was still able to learn a few things and it was a good end to the test with no major problems on the car and a lot of useful running at the end when the wind was calmer.
"Looking at the times it's of course still not clear where we stand and we're keeping a close eye on the competition," he concluded. "But we're confident that we have a good car at least."
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